38 Degrees Celsius
by alexa35
Summary: A lot of things can happen during a class outing right? Fang & Max find themselves in some pretty awkward situations.. -gasp- Alternate reality,where the flock doesn’t have wings & the school doesn’t exist. Full summary inside. :D Spare me, please read!
1. Say What!

**38 DEGREES CELSIUS**

_A lot of things can happen during a class chalet right?_

* * *

Note: **38DC has been slightly revised.** Nothing much will change, of course, except for the silly grammatical/spelling errors that I have made, and the 'format', if that actually makes sense. Also, this _was_ my first fanfiction after all, (not that that is an excuse) so I greatly apologise for the many cliched things that I have used. (Not going to do that again. I hope. Haha.) Thanks for reading!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Maximum Ride or any of the characters that appear in James Patterson's books. But I wish though… Sigh.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Say what?!**

"Yeah! It's going to be like, totally cool and all."

"I knowwwwwww. I mean, this _is _our class's first outing together! And it's going to be sooooo fun! I can just imagine it already. The yummy barbecued food, playing at the beach, swimming! Man oh man oh man oh man oh man!"

"I can't wait to go!"

"I wonder if my mum will approve though…"

Yeah, something was up. It wasn't every day everyone was chattering when I went into class just in the nick of time before the bell rang. They could beat the pants off that kid, wait, er, Nudge I think, her name was. Yeah. That talkative kid who lives down the neighborhood could start chattering about the weather and end off with the colour she wanted her hair to be. But it was kind of cute anyway.

"'Sup?" I asked Fang as I dumped my bag on the floor and slumped onto my chair. Hey – I woke up with Total barking his head off and his drool all over my foot. Not my fault. I really wonder what Ella and Angel see in that dog. Ella's my sister and Angel's another kid from the neighborhood. She's real cute and she always comes around to hang out, or play with Total. I tell you, those kids absolutely adore it and I have no idea why.

"Chalet." My best friend owns a totally emotionless mask. But he's still my best friend. Yeah yeah, same ol' story – our mums were childhood best friends and they go out together a lot, which resulted in Fang and I having to spend time together since the days we started tottering around in diapers and sucking our thumbs. Oh, the joy of reminiscence.

I raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Chalet," he repeated. He then pointed to the whiteboard before looking down and continuing doing whatever he had been doing before.

I looked at the whiteboard.

_Class chalet from 23-26__th__ Apr. Compulsory._

We'll see about that. I felt the compulsion for rubbing off the "compulsory". I was never the one for class spirit anyway.

"Class, can you _please_ settle down?" Brandon, our class chairperson, called out. Everybody went back to their seats as he read out the announcements for today.

"All computer club members, please take not that there will not be any co-curricular activities for you today." Some people groaned. Geeks.

"Zack, you're to see the Discipline Mistress later after school today because you've failed to appear for detention yesterday." I heard Zack curse.

"And finally… our class chalet!" Everybody whooped. Except me. And Fang.

"It'll take place from the 23rd to the 26th of April, which is three days from now. Consent forms will be given to your parents. It _is _compulsory for everyone as each and every class will be participating in class-bonding activities during these four days. The form that you're going to receive later will contain the list of items that you'll have to bring. And, Mr. Danny's coming."

Everybody groaned. Well, almost everybody. I could see Brigid high-fiving Mandy. I rolled my eyes at Fang. Typical. There was a reason I hated those two. Especially Brigid. I mean, come on. I could readily write a list of 100 reasons why I hate Brigid, beginning with sucking up to teachers and ending up with acting cute and dressing like a slut. But it's not good to linger on trash like that.

"So, are there any questions?" Brandon asked.

I raised my arm.

"I can't go," I said.

"And why may that be?" he said in that patronizing tone he saved specially for me. I could tell.

"Because I don't want to go."

"Your attendance is counted like during normal school days, Max," he said, exasperated.

"So?" I retorted.

"So, Max, if you don't go, it'll be counted as truancy." He crossed his arms and sighed, frustrated.

"But it's just a freaking chalet!"

"Well, since it's _just _a class chalet, why don't you go and stop making a huge fuss about things?"

"Go. It'll be fun." Fang shot me a look and sort of half-smiled at me. That immediately made up my mind.

"Alright, alright."

"Who're we going to share rooms with?" Brigid chirped excitedly. I saw her exchange a glance with Mandy. Geez, I bet they're dreaming of sharing a room with Mr. Danny.

"Mr. Danny will be creating the list, and he'll tell us on Thursday itself."

"What are we going to do those four days?" Iggy asked. Yeah, the blind kid. We don't talk much, but he's pretty okay. He's kind of creepy though. Even though he can't see, he has this uncanny knack of knowing where things and people are.

"Now that, you will find out later." Brandon gave everyone an evil grin. "The class committee has specially created the program for the whole class." Everyone groaned. So did I. This wasn't going to be good. "What? With Mr. Danny's approval, of course," he added hastily. Everyone was still shooting him suspicious looks. He snickered.

Brandon sighed and got the various subject representatives to remind the class about the homework due.

"What's wrong with a chalet?" Fang murmured.

"Nothing," I said. "Are you sure it'll be fun?" I frowned and knitted my brows. School was bad enough. He leaned forward.

"I'll be there," he whispered in my ears, and I flushed. Gosh, he looked sexy… His voice was sexy, and the way he looked at me… No! I did not just think that. He's your best friend, you stupid idiot, I reprimanded myself in my head. Thank goodness nobody could read minds here.

Yeah, you may think I'm in love with Fang or something.

Well yeah, I think I am.

* * *

"Ohmygosh, you're going on a class chalet? That's like so cool! My class is just going to have a picnic and we're going to the zoo. Like, hey, the _zoo_! And you're complaining." Ella rolled her eyes.

"I would gladly swap," I said to Ella. I sighed and passed the consent form to Mum after a moment of hesitation. Mum looked through the form and signed at the bottom.

"Look at the stuff you'll need! Why don't you go shopping with Ella, Angel and that nice girl Nudge later?" my mother suggested.

"Aw man, you know me better than that, please no Mum," I whined.

But Ella was already calling Angel and Nudge up. Dang. Don't even ask me how she is in possession of their phone numbers because I. Have. No. Idea.

"And Max, I know you're a smart girl, so don't let anything…funny… happen, okay?" she said.

Funny? Then it hit me. I groaned.

"Do you have no faith in me, Mum?" I muttered.

"Well Max, you gotta admit it, you're very pretty," Mum said.

"Ha-ha. Nice one Mum, you're just complimenting yourself aren't you?" I grinned. I look a lot like my mum. She smiled at me and let it go. Well, at least my mum did care about me.

Ella hung up and told us that they were on their way. Mum handed me some money and shooed us out of her study.

The doorbell rang. Ella ran to open the door and there stood Angel and Nudge. Nudge looked around eleven-ish. Huh. I should get around to asking her how old she was. Angel was holding a teddy bear. I think she called it Celeste. Both Angel and Nudge were dressed in girly clothes. Pink clothes. With kiddish designs. And flowery patterns.

"Hi Max! We're going to have so much fun!"

"Hello! We've like only talked twice right, but I still remember. This is going to be so much fun! We'll choose cute outfits for you. You'll look good in almost anything! I can tell! OMG, Max you're like so pretty. Hmm. Maybe pink will suit you. I hope it does. I like pink. I wonder if there's such a thing as pink hair dye. Then maybe I can dye my hair pink. That would be so totally cool!"

As Nudge continued chattering, Ella pulled my arm and we walked towards the nearby mall. Well, they walked and I stumbled. I was in a daze.

You know, I could just pass out right now.


	2. The Shopping Trip of Dooooomm

Thanks for the putting 38DC on your story alert, you guys are awesome. And thanks a lot to FAXfan for reviewing! (And being the first reviewer!) :D

**Disclaimer:** Me no own, you no sue, okeh? :D  


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**Chapter 2: The Shopping Trip of Doooooommmm**

Remember just now I said I could just pass out?

Well I could just _dieeeee_ right now.

Okay, imagine this. Me, Max. With Ella, Nudge and Angel. With lots of shopping bags. In the skirt department. Do I see eyes widening and hear those horrified gasps? Yes, me, Max. Looking at skirts with girly girls. There weren't even skirts mentioned in the list. But damn, Nudge and Angel have those dreadfully adorable Bambi eyes. You're lucky you've never seen those. Man, they're good.

Thankfully I made them promise not to get me any skirts. But I should have anticipated that they would make me "at least try them on". And those Bambi eyes – they could rule the world with it!

"Ohmygosh, Max, look at this! You look so adorable in it! Are you sure you don't want to get it? I mean like, everyone will be going ZOMG MAX IS SO PRETTY! And all the guys will want to take you out and like maybe you could get some ice cream or something. Mmm, I love strawberry-flavoured ice cream! They taste so yummy! And they're pink. Don't you like pink? I love pink."

I rolled my eyes. "You promised."

Nudge's face fell. Then she picked up another skirt, which was shorter than the one I was already wearing. Dang.

"Max, what about this? You _have _to try it!" Have I told you that those Bambi eyes were lethal?

"Come on Max, be a sport," Ella said, grinning.

"Whatever," I grumbled and grabbed the skirt before slamming the door to the dressing room.

My day just can't get worse, can it?

Well it just did.

Because when I went out of the dressing room, guess who I saw? Fang. With Iggy and another younger kid. Ella, Nudge and Angel were already in stitches, even though they were trying to stifle their laughter. They are so going to get it later.

Fang's eyes widened as he looked at me. I blushed. How would you feel if you best friend gave you an up and down? Awkward. Yep.

"Er. Hi," I said. I fought the urge to run back into the dressing room and hide there until they were gone.

"You should wear skirts more often," Fang said.

"Oh please, I look horrible in this," I said. Well, it's true. And skirts are so uncomfortable. They restrict your movement.

"Nope," he said. I was at a loss for words. Thank goodness that little kid saved me.

"Fang, is that your girlfriend?" the little boy asked. "She's pretty." I take it back. He did not save me at all.

"Uh. I'm not Fang's girlfriend. Nuh-uh. No. Nope." So much for coherency.

"She's Fang's best friend," Iggy said. "Or maybe something more. Ah, I wish I could see." He raised his eyebrows at Fang.

"Sexist pig," I muttered under my breath.

"I heard that!" Iggy chuckled.

"I'm the Gasman," the little boy smiled. "You can call me Gazzy."

"The Gasman?" I said, confused. "Riiiggghhhht."

"Trust me, you don't want to know," Iggy said.

"So, what're you doing here?" I said, trying to change the subject.

"Shopping."

"In the skirt department?" I said, incredulous.

"Men." He pointed at the other side of the aisle. Ah. Right. It was right next door. Uh. Okay. Then the girls walked up to us.

"Oh. Um. This is Ella, Nudge and Angel. Guys, meet Fang, Iggy and, er, Gazzy."

"Hey! It's nice meeting you, but we have to go now. Curfew, ya know," Ella said. "Come on Max, let's go. Bye!"

I was grateful and all for her saving me, but apparently Ella forgot I was still wearing the skirt. A saleswoman chased us as she dragged me towards the counter.

"Hey, you have to pay for that!"

"I know," Ella said. The woman frowned and walked away. I could hear the boys snickering at the back. Idiots.

Boys, can't live with them, can't live without them.

* * *

"So, Max… I bet you like Fang right?" Ella shot me the evilest look of the century. We were walking back home, after the ludicrous incident at the shopping mall. Note to self: Don't ever go shopping with Ella, Nudge and Angel ever again.

"ZOMG, they're like so perfect for each other! Did you see how Fang was looking at Max? I bet he was thinking that Max was so hot. Because Max is! Gosh. We should go shopping again next time! It'll be so fun! And we can look at more skirts! That'd be soooo cool – " I put my hand over her mouth. Geez, that would get annoying. Oh wait, it already is!

"Fang loves you, Max," Angel said quietly, looking at me. "Just like you love him."

"And how would you know, Angel?" I said, giving her a small smile. Little kids are so adorable.

"I'm not little. I'm going to be seven," she said. Huh?! Angel bit her lips. It was as if she read my mind. I laughed at myself. As if. Hmm. Must be a coincidence.

"Angel, it was as if you read my mind." I laughed. She smiled angelically at me.

"Must be a coincidence," she said.

"Yeah…"

"Mmmm! Mmmmm mmmmm mmmm!"

Oh right, my hand was still clasped over Nudge's mouth.

"Sorry," I grinned.

"You don't look sorry at all," she grumbled. I shrugged.

We reached my house and I dumped all the shopping bags I was holding onto Ella before opening the door.

"Bye Nudge, bye Angel. Thanks for accompanying us!" I said. Well at least I had manners. They waved goodbye and went back to their respective homes.

I grabbed back some shopping bags from Ella and went into the house.

"Mum! We're back!" Ella shouted. I sighed. Sometimes, I just can't believe we're sisters. I dumped the stuff onto the dining table and went to look for Mum to return her the extra cash. She was probably in her study anyway. I knocked and went in.

It came as an unpleasant surprise to see Jeb Batchelder in there.

* * *

"Hello Jeb. Fancy meeting you here," I said, my voice dripping with irony. What the hell was he doing here!

"Hi Max. I heard about your chalet. Have fun!" I ignored the comment.

"What are you doing here, Jeb?" I growled.

"I came here to see your mother, of course. And you and Ella too. Wow, sweetheart, you've grown." He plastered a smile on his face. Fake. Ella wandered into the study, wondering what had taken me so long.

"Oh," she uttered in surprise, when she caught sight of Jeb. "Er. I better call Mum." Yeah, she better, before I ripped his throat out.

I hated this man. I bloody hated him. Everytime I set eyes on him, I felt like screaming and kicking and ripping his hair out. I don't want to talk about it. Let's just say that I have a long and disturbing past which this man had been a huge part of.

"Oh, Jeb, you're here," my mum said faintly. "Max, why don't you and Ella go up to your room and pack your stuff for the chalet?"

I grunted and obliged. Anything to get me away from that eyesore would be fine.

"Let's go! Should I call Nudge and Angel over again to help pack?" Ella grinned.

"Noooooooooo," I said firmly.

"I bet you'd rather Fang come over," she said cheekily. I flushed. Why that little – "Max and Fang, sitting in a tree. K-I-S- ahhhhh!" she screamed and giggled as I chased her around the room.

Ella could just win an award for taking my mind of things.


	3. Stupid Pot Holes and Horrible Room Mates

Thanks to dusk3ttex01 for reviewing! Sigh. Only 2 reviews. Is my writing that bad..? Ahhhh. Anyway, sorry, I hope this chapter won't be too boring. Also, I apologise for the over dosage of 'Yo's from Iggy.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything that's familiar. And anything that's not familiar I don't own too. Aw man.

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**Chapter 3: Stupid Pot Holes and Horrible Room Mates**

So here I am. At school. And only a few people were around. The class was supposed to gather at the school and head for the chalet together in a bus. Surprisingly, I was one of the early birds. Strange. My mum had rushed me out of the house, saying that I would be late. I wonder if it had anything to do with that scoundrel Jeb.

"You're not wearing a skirt today," Fang said, with dismay, I think. He sneaked up on me. Well, I had been daydreaming anyway.

"Nope." I frowned. "I hate skirts. They're so uncomfortable." My face went red as I recalled the 'incident' that had taken place yesterday.

"Pity."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Fang wants to see you in a MINI-skirt, Max. He thinks you look h-o-t!" Iggy said, smiling slyly. I jumped. Fang punched his shoulder.

"Since when did you two get so tight?" I asked Fang.

"Dunno." Hmph. Typical one-word answer Fang. I mean like, would it hurt to say things in one full sentence already?

Everybody was starting to stream in. Soon, Brandon began taking attendance.

"Anna!"

"Here!"

"Abigail!"

"Here!"

"Brandon!"

"Here," the whole class said lazily.

"Oh, right." Seriously, I don't get why that dork is our chairperson. I mean, he even forgets about himself when taking the class attendance.

"Iggy!"

"I'm not here!" Iggy said.

"Then where are you?" Brandon said, looking up, genuinely puzzled. Everyone snorted. What an idiot.

* * *

So we finished roll call and boarded the bus. Some had to resort to seating three people in a row, as the bus had too little seats. Guess what? Somehow, I got stuck in between Iggy and Fang. Not good.

As we headed off towards our destination, the whole bus was full of chatter. Everybody was talking excitedly about what they wanted to do, what clothes they had brought – sheesh – and other stuff. Someone was even crying because she was homesick. I noticed that Brandon was squashed between Brigid and Mandy who were talking animatedly to him – the poor kid looked pale.

"What are you thinking about?" Fang interrupted my thoughts.

"Hmm? Nothing much. Just wondering, what's so good about this stupid chalet?" Honestly, I still don't get why everybody was looking forward to it.

"Well I'm looking forward to it because it'll give me a chance to watch you and Fang get, er, closer," Iggy said and cackled like a maniac. I whacked him on the head.

Fang smirked.

"I'm looking forward to it cos you'll be there," he said to me. I looked into his eyes and could see that he meant it sincerely.

"Uh. Okay."

You know, Fang has those sort of captivating eyes, so full of depth that you feel like you're drowning in them. Oh yeah, Fang was a man full of depth. And he was so attractive. Suddenly I realized that I was sitting so close to him. And I became aware of the small space between our faces. I closed my eyes and we both leaned forward and…

The bus ran over a pot hole.

Ugh. I cursed as I bounced in my seat and blushed furiously and stared straight. Thank you so much for ruining a nice moment. Why was the world against me? Thank goodness Iggy was blind.

"Were you guys making out?" he asked. Okay, now I really wonder if he's blind or not.

"No," I said. Longingly though. What's getting into me? "Why the random question?"

"Because you both were suddenly so quiet. And you cursed at that pot hole."

"So?" Fang said. He rolled his eyes. I proceeded to sigh and daydream about worlds where pot holes never existed.

This ride was starting to get boring. And that, combined with the fact that I didn't have enough sleep yesterday thanks to this particular girl called Ella who just couldn't stop talking about how excited she was about her class trip even though it was just to the zoo, I felt my eyes beginning to droop. Don't drool on Fang, don't drool on Fang don't drool on Fang don't dr…

* * *

Fang

Max looked so beautiful sleeping. She was so perfect. I can't believe it – Max was sleeping on me. Her head was on my shoulder and I held her hand. She looked so absolutely gorgeous. She was just so… modest about herself. Why can't she accept the fact that she looked so hot in skirts? No, she looked hotter in skirts. God, I was falling head over heels in love with my best friend. Was that good or bad?

Max was so fiery and feisty. So…sexy. But yet, she had a kind soul inside, even though she doesn't show it often. I was there when she gave money to the hobo and was sorry she couldn't give more. I was there when she cried that time we watched a documentary on whales dying while our parents were out. Okay, maybe that was because she was afraid of the killer whale. Hey, we were five. But anyway, I was there ever since I could remember.

Max, I love you so much. I wish you loved me just as much.

* * *

"WE'RE HERREEEE!!!" Brandon shouted and I was startled awake from my la la land. Pity. It was a good dream. Which maybe had something to do with bus rides on worlds where pot holes never existed. I was still groggy but I had enough sense to take in what was going on – wait why was I holding Fang's hand? And holy cow, is that drool on his shirt? Oh my gosh! I drooled on Fang! I fumbled for tissue paper in my bag and quickly wiped away the drool. He chuckled and tightened his grip on my hand.

"Yo, lovebirds, time to get off," Iggy said. Man, right now I wish I had drooled buckets on him. Then we'd see what he had to say.

Everyone gathered at the main room at the chalet after. Man, it was big, but I cannot see how it could fit 41.

Mr. Danny was there already, and we greeted him.

"Good afternoon, everybody! I hope you're excited! Firstly, I have to establish some rules." Everybody groaned and Mr. Danny laughed. "Number one, if you are to leave the chalet to go somewhere on your own, you are to go in groups of three or more. Don't want you getting lost, yeah? Secondly, there will be no swapping of roommates. This chalet is for you to get to know your classmates better and form a stronger bond with them. And last of all, have fun!" Everybody cheered. Geez, what is _with_ these people?

"There are five chalets, numbers 30 – 34, rented for our class, but this one will be the main place where everybody will gather every morning. You'll have breakfast in your own respective chalets. There are four rooms in each chalet so it's two to a room, except for one that will be three. There will be one person in charge of each chalet, who will make sure that everybody comes down on time and goes to sleep on time. He or she is also in charge of the keys. Okay, rooming partners and chalet numbers are up on the board and once you've checked get up and get comfy. I expect everybody to be down here in an hour's time, ready for some fun!"

Everyone made a mad rush for the list. I wondered who I'd be rooming with. Definitely Mr. Danny would put me with some pansy like Brigid or Mandy. He gave the impression that he never really liked me anyway. After most of the crowd was gone, I scanned the list for my name.

"Maximum Ride… Maximum Ride… Ah. Chalet 34 rooming with… Fang and Iggy. What!" I almost screamed. Was there a mistake? God, I was going to share a room with my best friend whom I apparently, well, love, and a sexist pig that is fond of teasing Fang and I. I laughed nervously. This must be a mistake. I went over to Mr. Danny and asked him about it.

"Mr. Danny, why am I rooming with two guys?" I asked.

"Well Max, remember that there're 41 of us? Besides me, I mean. So there'll be one room with three people in it."

"And why, may I ask, did you put me with Fang and Iggy?"

"Well, I know you don't like the girls in the class. You'll have a hard time with them, since you're so boyish. Sometimes I wonder why you're even born a girl, you're meant to be a boy. And isn't Fang your best friend? So what's wrong?"

I grunted.

"Anyway, I know you kids are smart enough not to let anything indecent happen," Mr. Danny said seriously. Indecent? Oh. Right. I almost slapped him. Nobody here seems to have any trust in me at all!

"So Max, any other queries?" he asked. I shook my head. Well, at least he trusted me enough to put me in a room with Fang and Iggy, plus he took into consideration the fact that I hated all the girls in this class. Okay, maybe not hate. But let's just say we don't' get along really well.

I stomped towards Fang and Iggy, who were huddled in a corner, talking. Fang seemed happy for some weird reason. He was actually smiling. Can't be about the rooming thing I guess. What's there to be happy about, sharing a room with me?

"Yo roomie!" Iggy shouted. Fang punched him. I could feel eyes on my back as I walked towards them. I bet they were wondering why I was sharing with those two. Hopefully there wouldn't be any false rumours.

"U and A, guys," I said, and waited impatiently for them to grab their belongings.

"What's U and A?" Iggy asked. Oh right. He didn't know.

"Up and Away," I sighed.

"Okayyyy."

"Wait, who's our chalet-in-charge?" I asked.

"Brandon," Fang replied.

I nodded.

"Are Brigid and Mandy in the same chalet as us?" I asked anxiously.

"Nope," Fang said, shooting me a look. I looked back and smiled gratefully.

"Yo Brandy! Are you done? Let's go!" Iggy shouted. Brandon was startled and he dropped the keys. I rolled my eyes.

The nine of us – Brandon, Alvin, Carmen, Angeline, Michelle, Zoe, Iggy, Fang and I – headed off towards chalet 34 together. Everyone was already talking to each other and I could see that Michelle and Zoe had instantly clicked. I never really talked to any of them. I wasn't even aware that there was such a person as Alvin in class. But everybody was getting along. Except me, I guess.

"Hey Max, you know Fang's really excited about sharing a room with you," Iggy sidled over and whispered conspiratorially into my ear, making sure that Fang could hear him.

"Well, it definitely can't be because of the fact that he's actually rooming with _you_," I said. Fang smirked.

Okay, so maybe, this could actually turn out to be fun.


	4. Banter, Beach and Barbeque: Hell Yeah

Thank you so much for the awesome reviews! I really love you guys a lot. –sends virtual kisses- Thanks man.

**SeekDreamsAndFindHope: **_"This is a school trip, right? It's actually illegal for two unrelated people, whether they be boy and girl or boy and boy or girl and girl, to share a bed. The school, by law, has to make sure girls room with girls and boys room with boys by law unless they're siblings...  
But other than the legal technicality, it's a good story...  
Luna__"_  
Okay, so to any other readers that have the same thoughts, I'd like to explain that, I'm really sorry. I'd really like to thank Luna for telling me this, 'cause now I know. (Actually it should be common sense, but, after reading the profiles of many, I believe that he died..) I hope that you'll overlook this problem, for this _is_ just a story after all. Thanks. :D

**Disclaimer:** Same ol' same ol'. I don't own. Sadly.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Banter, Beach & Barbeque – Hell Yeah**

The room was absolutely adorable. And you won't catch me saying that word again. Uhuh. So now, the only catch was that there was this big king-sized bed and a small mattress at the side. So I guess two had to share. Not me. I zipped to the made-up bed on the floor – to have Iggy beat me to it.

"I'm not sleeping there," I stated firmly, glancing at the humongous bed. Iggy just grinned and sat on the bed, refusing to move. "Shove off. Come on, Iggy. Be a sport."

Fang was silent, as usual. He put his bag on the large bed.

"What's wrong with sharing with me?" he asked.

"Nothing," I said. "Just that it's a little _inappropriate_, don't you think, for a guy and a girl to be sharing a bed when – "

"Well considering that you two are going to get married in like, what, five years time, then what's wrong?" Iggy grinned. I snorted.

"How would you know?" I asked. Dang, why was it so hot in here? Or was it just me… Ugh. "What's wrong with you sharing with Fang anyway?" I asked, frustrated. I mean like, they're both guys. So what?

"Nothing. Just that it's more inappropriate, don't you think, for a guy _and _a guy to be sharing a bed?" he quoted, adding a little changes.

"Why don't you two share?" Fang suggested.

"No!" we both shouted at the same time. Sheesh.

"What's all the commotion about?" Brandon said, entering the room.

"We're debating on who's to share with who on that huge bed," Iggy said.

"Oh." His face turned slightly pink. "So it's either Fang and Max, Fang and Iggy, or Iggy and Max. Right?" I shot him a look that said no freaking duh, stupid.

"Uh, why don't Fang and Iggy sh – "

"Like I said, I'm no gay character, Brandy. I am not sharing with Fang."

"Even if I shove your face down the toilet bowl?" I said darkly.

"Nuh-uh. That won't work on me." We'll see about that.

"Uh… W-why don't we d-draw lots then?" Brandon stuttered.

The three of us looked at each other and came to a silent agreement. That would be the fairest way, after all. Brandon tore a piece of paper into three and wrote our names on one piece of paper each. Then he folded each piece and then took two out.

"Uh. Um. Fang, you're sharing with Max." Brandon then ran out of the room. As if we were going to chase him with pitchforks and murder him! I started laughing. After their initial shock, Fang and Iggy joined in the laughter. Did I really not laugh that much?

"So it's me and you, Fang," I said in a matter-of-fact tone. Frankly speaking, I was actually a whole bunch of nerves below. Hmm. Maybe I've learned some things from Mr. No-Emotion after all.

"I like the sound of that," Fang said and gave me one of those rare smiles that sent my world topsy-turvy.

Iggy made a big show of dashing to the toilet and making puking noises.

"You are so going to get it, Iggy!" I let out a war-cry that would make little kids pee in their pants and Fang and I ran to the toilet to give that sexist pig what he deserved.

* * *

Changed and freshened up, we gathered at the main chalet to hear what we were going to do for the rest of the day. It was around four thirty in the afternoon, and the sliding doors were open. The breeze from outside was awesome and cooling.

"So, for the rest of today, we're going to the beach!" Everybody whooped and cheered. Except Fang and I, as usual.

Everyone rushed outside to the beach after changing into their beachwear. I stayed in my same clothes – shirt and shorts. I kicked off my shoes and the feeling of sand on my feet, in between my toes, was absolutely delightful. The girls started – guess what – making sandcastles. Pansies. Some of the guys were oogling at the girls in bikinis. Ew. Guys will be guys, I guess. I sat down in a part where there were lesser people and just looked out at the sea.

How great it would be to fly into the horizon and never look back. I would feel so free.

"Hey," Fang said, and sat next to me. He and Iggy had gone back to the chalet to change. Fang was wearing black swimming shorts and a shirt. I am ashamed to say this but I started to wonder what he looked like without the shirt. I flushed, horrified that I could even think these kind of things. Hormones suck. He looked at me questioningly, an eyebrow raised.

"Hi Fang! You look good!" Brigid said and she plopped down next to him. I scowled. What was _with _her?

She started chatting animatedly to Fang in that high pitched girly voice of hers. I swear, her voice was dripping with thick honey. Fang wouldn't like her…right? I gulped. What if he did? What if he liked some trash female dog like Brigid? Nah. He doesn't have such a horrible taste. And he can't possibly like me too. I wonder what kind of person Fang likes? Not Brigid-ish right?

* * *

Fang

Brigid is just so annoying! What does she want from me? Can't she see that Max is really annoyed?

Max looked so pretty sitting there, the wind blowing her hair out of her face. I wonder what she'd look like in the bikini that Brigid was wearing. Good God, she'd look gorgeous. Then I realized that I had been staring at Max's boobs and ignoring what Brigid has been saying. Uh. _Damn_.

* * *

"Fang? Fang? Are you alright?" Brigid asked.

I looked up and saw Fang's sexy red face – Huh? Red? Uh.. Ignore the sexy comment.

"Uh, what happened to you?" I asked. His eyes flicked down to my shirt, then my eyes, then he looked away altogether.

"I think he was staring at your assets," Brigid said, stupefied. Her mouth was open. I sincerely hoped that the wind would blow some sand into her mouth. Or a bird would magically do its business there or something.

"Assets?" I didn't have a clue what she was talking about. Remind me to look that word up the dictionary.

"In other words, your boobs, you freak," Brigid stated and rolled her eyes. She pronounced freak as fur-reek. Typical.

Fang, staring at my…assets? Yeah, right. I don't even have any.

But still. Hmmm.

I looked at Fang. He avoided eye contact entirely and abruptly stood up.

"Sorry, I think Iggy's calling me," he said in an indifferent voice, before turning around stiffly and walking off like a robot. Weird. I laughed. I tried to get over the fact that Brigid had been flirting with Fang and decided to ask her about Fang.

"Seriously, Brigid. What got into him? And why in the world was his face all red?"

"He put make-up on," she said sarcastically and walked off in a huff.

Well, at least I tried.

* * *

After hours at the beach, we were finally called back for dinner – the barbecue. Needless to say, everyone was hyped up as usual. We were all munching happily on our unhealthy, fatty barbecued food when the lights just suddenly went out.

A few people screamed. I continued munching. What? I have a high metabolism rate.

"Where's Mr. Danny? Does anyone have any idea where he is? We need to fix the light," I heard Brandon say. Suddenly, a white figure jumped out at him.

"Boo!" shouted the thing. All I can say is that Brandon shrieked like a girl. I'll have to replace my eardrums if I ever hear that ever again.

"Wooooooooo~ I am the Flying Dutchman! Bewareeeeee." The voice was so eerie it sent shivers down my spine. My heart started beating faster and I broke out into cold sweat. Where was Fang when I needed him?

If you seriously believe that, I have no idea what to say to you.

Anyway, someone started giggling. And it was so contagious, the whole room burst into laughter as we realized it was Mr. Danny draped in white cloth – and Brandon had totally fallen for it!

And the best thing was that Brigid was choking on her food! I hope she chokes to death. Okay, maybe not. I hope she chokes till she faints and won't regain consciousness until the next century to make some-other-person-out-there-in-the-future's life miserable. Yeah. That would be more appropriate.

"Idiot," Fang said and rolled his eyes.

"Uhuh," I agreed, and continued munching my food. Angeline looked over at where we were sitting and called us.

"Hey Max! Fang! Iggy! Are you guys done eating! We want to go back to the chalet and call it a night," Angeline winked. Oh yeah, something was up.

"Angeline just winked," Fang said quietly into Iggy's ear. Iggy's face instantly lit up.

"I wonder what they want to do," he muttered to himself as we quickly finished off the last of our food. "Hope it's fun."

Fang just grunted. I sneaked some food into my pocket. Ew, I better remember to wash this pair of pants properly later.

The nine of us got up and bid the others goodnight before we headed off to our chalet.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked Angeline. She just smiled slyly.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough," she said and gave me a perverted look. I smacked her and laughed. She does that to everyone.

"Ohmygod! Brandon! The Flying Dutchman! Ahhhhh!" Zoe let out a realistic scream. Brandon whipped his head around.

"Where? Where?!" he screamed, brandishing his arms. "You will _never _get me! Even though I'm scared, I'll make sure you will never ever haunt Bikini Bottom and Earth ever again!"

He only realized that he was being fooled when everyone burst out laughing.

"Seriously Brandon, cut down on the Spongebob," Alvin said and the idiot hung his head in shame. Michelle snickered.

"'_Boy declares war against Flying Dutchman to save Bikini Bottom' _comes to mind," she laughed.

"Well, at least it's for a good cause – he's saving the hot spot for all the beach bunnies!" Iggy snorted.

"Aw, shut up," Brandon muttered.

"I watch Spongebob too! I think it's cool!" Carmen suddenly said to Brandon. The rest of us – well, we just stared at her in shock.

"Really?" Brandon said, a smile slowly forming on his face.

"Yeah! And did you watch that episode where Spongebob had to catch Jellyfish? He went like, "Jelly fishing jelly fishing jelly fishing jelly fishing!" It was sooooo funny, I joined in!" The two of them started to engage in a heated discussion about their favourite television show. I am now officially scarred for life.

"Well, at least it's not Pokemon," Iggy said.

"Pokemon? I LOOOOVE POKEMON!" Brandon and Carmen exclaimed at the same time.

"You just _had_ to say it, Iggy," Fang said and we all burst into laughter.


	5. Scarred for Life

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for the awesome reviews! Man, you guys are tops! Thank you soooo much. :D

**Disclaimer:** If I own Maximum Ride or any of the other characters, I'd be in a mental hospital for having weird delusions. I would also like to credit _the7thflockmember_'s story 50 ways to annoy Fang.

* * *

**Chapter 5: Scarred for Life**

"No. Way." I was dead set against it. Angeline and her weird ideas – hell no!

"But it'll be sooooo fun!" she protested. "What do you guys think?"

"Yeah! Heck – anything fun like that and I'm up for it," Zoe promptly said. Ah. Iggy had finally found his soulmate.

"So long as we don't get caught," Alvin agreed. What kind of answer is that?!

Iggy gave everyone an enormous maniacal grin, which probably meant a huge yes.

"Sure," Michelle said and giggled with Zoe.

"I'll do it if Brandon does!" Carmen chirped and shot him a look from the corner of her eye before looking down, her face slightly pink. Was this the start of love or what?

"Uh… Um… I…" Brandon faltered.

"I will personally make sure the Flying Dutchman comes after you if you don't agree to this," Angeline threatened.

"Uh, okay okay! I'll do it! Stupid Flying Dutchman," Brandon muttered darkly under his breath.

So that left Fang and I. He raised an eyebrow and turned to look at me.

"No!" I was still against the idea. Ugh! I shouldn't have come!

"Come on, it'll be _fun_! And we'll get to bond too!" Angeline persuaded. "Fang?"

"No," he said, following me.

"I can see where this is going," Iggy said, nodding slowly like a wise old man. "Look at it this way guys, we'll go and leave Fang and Max so that they can do their… _private stuff _alone here." He raised his eyebrows and cackled like a maniac.

Iggy was so going to get it! I flushed and attempted to hit him on the head, but he managed to dodge. How could this stupid blind kid be blind?!

"Max and Fang?" Zoe grinned cheekily. Oh man. Oh no. This was going to be bad. "Max and Fang, sitting in a tree! M!"

"O!" Michelle shouted. I groaned. Not this. Please not this.

"A!" Alvin said.

"N!" Brandon shouted. Man, everyone was ganging up on us!

"I!"

"N!"

"ALRIGHT, I'LL GO!" I bellowed and everybody chortled. Even Fang was smiling a little.

"So I take it as you're going to, Fang?" Angeline asked him. He just nodded. Typical.

Angeline, still giggling, began to instruct everyone on how the prank was going to be carried out.

So the plan was this: We would go to every chalet and put other people's underwear on everyone's head. I know – how lame can this get?

Apparently, Zoe was a master at the art of lock-picking. I wonder what she does during her free time. Anyway, she would pick the lock to each chalet and we, in pairs, would sneak into a room each and grab any piece of undergarment we could find from each person before going to another room – preferably belonging to the opposite sex – and place the said piece of underwear on their heads or stuff it down their shirts or something. Ridiculous! I mean I would feel totally embarrassed if I woke up to find Fang's boxers on my head or stuffed down my shirt. Ew. Gross.

We decided to leave at 12.30 am as everyone would probably be asleep by then. And that left us with… 2 hours of having nothing to do.

"I know! Let's play this game – everyone says a sentence and the next person continues! Like, I'll start with 'There was once a boy named Brandon,' and Michelle will have to come up with another sentence and then Zoe, and so on, so that it becomes a story," Carmen said. We all reluctantly agreed – it seemed to be a boring game but heck, we didn't have anything else to do anyway. Carmen beamed.

"There was once a prince called Brandon who ruled Bikini Bottom," Carmen started. I almost gagged. Prince?! In his dreams…

"He was stripped of his title and outcasted after the Flying Dutchman conned him out of his throne," Michelle said.

"So he wandered the seabed, having nothing in mind for his future," Zoe said in a sad voice.

"One day, he met an emo kid named Fang and was so frightened he peed in his pants," Alvin chuckled. Fang scowled.

"He poked Fang between the eyes and ran away screaming 'I touched a goth kid!'" I couldn't contain my laughter. Brandon, poking Fang between the eyes? Possible, and funny. Running away screaming "I touched a goth kid!"? HILARIOUS! Fang's scowl deepened and he proceeded to punch Iggy as everyone laughed their heads off.

"Uh… Fang started rapping the Spongebob Squarepants theme song," Brandon said, obviously glad that the story wasn't on him anymore.

"He stopped," Fang said. Heh. Typical Fang.

"The Flying Dutchman, spotting Fang, swooped down and tried to scare him," I said. What? I don't have anything better in mind.

"Fang screamed for help, and Max came to his rescue!" Angeline squealed. I'm really starting to hate this.

"Fang was so grateful he kissed Max." Hmmm. I wonder what it would feel like to _really_ kiss Fang. Sigh. Curse the pot hole. Okay wait, why was I even thinking about that?

"They got married and had twins, a boy and a girl!"

"The happily married couple named their children Tooth and Minimum," Zoe chortled. This was getting absolutely ridiculous.

"Tooth had a best friend called Decay," Alvin said.

"And together they're called Cavity!" Really, I couldn't help but roll my eyes at Iggy.

"They haunted Iggy."

"Iggy was so traumatized he started dancing ballet for stress relief."

"Everyone was scarred for life and they threw up as a result."

"Iggy slipped on the vomit and fell on his butt!"

"I would never do that!" he protested.

"Says the blind kid," Michelle said.

"Ze blind kid shalt cook breakfast for yer majesty tomorrow then," he said in a huff.

"Let's just hope I don't get poisoned," she replied and grinned.

"You never know, Michelle, you never know," Iggy said darkly and shot her an evil smile.

Well one thing's for sure - I won't be the one cleaning up tomorrow morning.

* * *

"Guys, it's 12.30. Let's go!" Angeline whispered excitedly. The lights were off, to let Mr. Danny think that we were all asleep if he checked on us.

"Can we just ditch this plan? We're tired," I said, in a last attempt to wiggle out of Angeline's whacko idea.

"What is this? You want to do _stuff _with Fangy Wangy, huh Max?" Iggy said. "Maybe we'll get to meet Tooth and Minimum sooner than expected!"

I reached out to punch him, but as usual, he dodged away. I _will _get that maniac sooner or later… He brought it on himself.

"Wait! Before we go – everybody has to wear black!" Carmen said.

"Whyyyyy?" Zoe groaned.

"Well – look at yourself! People can just recognize you in an instant!" Carmen exclaimed. Zoe frowned and examined her clothes: a white shirt and lime green shorts.

"Well, if I'm lucky, maybe they'll think I'm the Flying Dutchman come to haunt them at night," she said and Carmen giggled, daring a glance at Brandon who gulped.

"It _is _a good idea…" Angeline mused. "Alright! Everybody – wear black!"

"But I didn't bring any black clothes!" I groaned.

"Neither did I!" Alvin said.

"Well. There is only one solution to this problem," Angeline whispered.

"Don't wear black?" I suggested hopefully.

"You wish! Heh. My brilliant idea is… BORROW THEM FROM FANG!" she said. Oh, very brilliant. Fang looked at me, eyebrows raised.

This was horrible! What if I perspired? I'd totally stink his shirt! And he'll have to wear them again! I was horrified.

"No way. No freaking way."

But Fang was already on his way up to the room. Oh man.

Iggy was in stitches.

"The next thing you know, Fang'll be wearing Max's shirt!"

"Too small," Fang replied. I jumped, not realizing that he was back, holding two sets of shirts. He passed one to me and another to Alvin. When I saw the caption on the shirt that he passed me, I giggled. Yes, me, Maximum Ride, just giggled. Why? Because printed on the shirt was this: "I'M NO GOTH KID". Ah, the contradiction of it all.

Five minutes later, we were all changed and ready-to-prank. Obviously, Fang didn't need to change his clothes since he's like _always _in black.

"So guys, ready?" Angeline whispered.

"Oh yeah!" Iggy and Zoe replied. Everyone else was getting into the mood.

"Can you imagine what their reactions will be like?!" Carmen chirped to Brandon. "I wish we could just tape it all!"

"Yeah…" Brandon said uncertainly.

"Geez, I wonder how Ken would react," Alvin mused. Ken and Alvin were best mates.

"Are we going to do it to Mr. Danny?" Michelle asked Angeline.

"Well…"

"I know the perfect thing to do to Mr. Danny!" Zoe exclaimed.

"What?" Zoe whispered into the Queen of Pranks' ear and they grinned evilly as a plan formulated. My stomach began churning. This was going to be so bad.

"Guys, we have something special for Mr. Danny," she said to everyone.

I swear, even Fang was smiling a little when she finished.

And as for me – well you could say I was just starting to realize that I was going to share a chalet with a bunch of crazy people for four days. The really sad thing was that I'm one of them.


	6. Surprise, Surprise!

When I logged into my email account, I was like, woah. Thanks! :D

So, chapter six. Review, please? Reviews make me motivated to continue. I'm starting to think that this story's going stale and I should just stop. :/

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Maximum Ride or any other characters that are associated with the book.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Surprise, Surprise!**

It was a great day when I woke up to screams emanating from neighboring chalets. In fact, the nine of us actually joined in the screaming to throw off suspicion!

"AHHHHHHHHH!! This is sooo fun!" Carmen shouted. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!! ZOMG!! WHY ARE BRANDON'S BOXERS ON MY HEAD!! AHHHHHHH!!"

"WHY ARE YOU HOLDING MY UNDERWEAR?"

"PINK BRAS?!" I heard someone shout in the distance.

"OMG KEN YOU HAVE UNDERWEAR WITH KITTENS PRINTED ON IT?!"

God, this was just so brilliantly funny! I wondered what had made me refuse in the first place. We high-fived each others as we continued screaming. But this was just the tip of the iceberg.

The residents of chalet number 34 split up and trooped down towards 30-33 after some hectic shrieking.

"Have you seen Mr. Danny? We can't seem to find him. We want to tell him about this outrageous undergarment scandal! My poor exquisite boxers felt so _molested _on Zoe's head!" Iggy said dramatically. I bet if Zoe were here, she'd totally roll her eyes.

"Anyway, do you know where Mr. Danny is?" I asked, cutting to the chase.

"Isn't he in his room?" Ken replied.

"Nope," Zoe said, popping the p.

"Is that Mr. Danny?!" Carmen shouted incredulously and pointed at the beach.

Similar conversations were happening at the other chalets and soon, everyone was gathered at the beach, some laughing, others mortified at the sight of Mr. Danny, still sleeping, on the beach. Yep. We had carried him down to the beach. It was a miracle that he was still asleep when we carried him down! Fang sidled up to me.

"If he finds out, we're so dead," I said to him. He just shot me a heart-stopping grin.

"Regretting playing a role in this?" he asked quietly.

"Not really."

"Then why worry?" he asked.

Right now, I just realized that we were alone right at the back of the whole crowd on the beach. Why was it that every time that Fang was this close to me, my awareness of our surrounding just heightens?

Fang slowly leaned closer, staring at my lips. I closed my eyes and leaned forward.

Just as our lips met, I was blinded by a flash of light. We broke apart and I saw Iggy holding a camera! It was black and huge, the type that those professional people use. That twerp! I flushed and looked at the floor. Fang's face was just as red. I couldn't handle it anymore and I stomped away.

* * *

Fang

I shot Iggy the death glare while Max stormed away in a fit of anger. If looks could kill, he would have withered there and then. But of course, he was blind so there wasn't any point in glaring. But still!

"Damn you, Iggy," I growled. He just grinned cheekily.

"I hope you make me Tooth and Minnie's godfather!" he cackled. I rolled my eyes and went after Max.

* * *

"Max!" Fang called. I couldn't bear to turn around and meet his eyes. God, this was so embarrassing!

Fang ran up and pulled me into a tight embrace from the back.

"Iggy'll face the wrath of Maximum Ride," he whispered in my ear.

"Mhm," I muttered, and all my anger dissipated. How was Fang able to do this?! Gah. Then, a shout from the crowd caught our attention.

"Look! I got a photo of Max and Fang making out!" Iggy shouted. Dang. Fang and I hurried over. Halfway there, everyone erupted into laughter.

"Awesome, Iggy!"

"HAHAHAHAHA!!"

"OMG IGGY YOU'RE THE STUPIDEST GUY EVER!"

What was going on here? I could sense Fang's confusion as well. Iggy was stupid for taking a photo of Fang and I - ugh – making out?

"Classic! Smart-ass Iggy taking a photo with the lens cover still on!"

And I burst into laughter with everyone. Ah, the woes of being blind.

"What's going on here? Where am I?" Mr. Danny mumbled, rubbing his eyes. Everyone became silent at once. I swear, if a pin dropped, we could even hear it.

Mr. Danny opened his eyes and squinted under the glare of the sun.

"Where am I? What's going on? Mommy? MOMMY!" he started shouting. Some people began to giggle. Well, picture this: a fully grown man in bunny-printed pajamas clutching a bunny and calling for his mummy. And add on the fact that he's our teacher. Nobody's going to take him seriously for some time after this.

Mr. Danny seemed to collect himself, and stood up. He shook the sand from his hair and looked at everyone.

"What're you doing?" he squinted and glared suspiciously at Iggy. Iggy, seeming to know that Mr. Danny was addressing him, replied.

"I'm looking at you, Mr. Danny," Iggy said innocently. "Technically speaking, I can't really look at you, but you get the gist of it. I'm staring at your direction but I can't see anything. But apparently, I heard that you're wearing bunny-printed P-Js and is that a toy bunny in your hand?!"

Mr. Danny suddenly seemed to realize that his entire form class was staring at him. Then get this – he screamed and ran towards the direction of his chalet.

And to believe I thought Brandon was a dork.

* * *

After Mr. Danny ran off, Brandon, being the responsible chairperson and all, told everyone to get breakfast and gather at the main chalet by half-past eight. Giggling, we streamed back into our chalet.

"So, Iggy, shall we get to witness your wondrous cooking?" Zoe said as we sat on the sofas. I sat on the floor and leaned against Fang's legs, as he was sitting on the sofa. Um. Yeah. Iggy grinned and stalked off into the kitchen.

"Gosh, I hope someone taped Mr. Danny running off like that! It was priceless!" Michelle said eagerly.

"I think it was kind of mean though," Brandon frowned.

"Oh, get over it and stop being such a pansy," I said.

"It's not like we're doing anything illegal, right? I saw this movie, where these twins put this guy onto this inflatable raft while he was sleeping and pushed the raft onto a lake!" Carmen chirped.

"Cool," Fang uttered.

"I should have brought my camera," Alvin said ruefully.

"Speaking of cameras, were you guys actually making out just now?" Zoe asked, shooting a suspicious look at Fang and I.

"Nope," we both replied, a little too fast for my liking.

"Well, Iggy was an idiot, taking a photo without removing the lens cover for the camera!" Angeline said.

"Sometimes I forget he's blind," Zoe sighed. "But he's great all the same."

"Do you want to play yesterday's game again?" Carmen asked.

"NO!" I said, annoyed. Iggy saved us by coming out of the kitchen.

"Voila!" he said and handed everyone a plate of steaming omelet each. And heck did it smell good. And it even _looked _good. But ever heard of the saying "don't judge a book by it's cover"?

"Are you sure you made this and that there's nobody hiding in there, helping you?" Michelle asked suspiciously.

"Yo invisible-person-helping-me-cook! You can come out now!" Iggy shouted towards the kitchen. Heh. "I'd like you to meet my helper, Monsieur Bean." Iggy bowed.

I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Now, the final test… Michelle, get the phone ready to call for an ambulance if I get poisoned!" Zoe said.

"Oh how noble of you to be willing to sacrifice yourself to test the food," Iggy chuckled.

Ignoring the comment, Zoe cut off a bit of the food and put it into her mouth. She chewed slowly, playing with the food in her mouth, and finally swallowed.

"Do I look pale? Am I sprouting green hair? Do I look constipated?" she asked Angeline.

"Your happy glow. It's blinding," Fang said.

I laughed with him. Zoe was practically bouncing as she gave up the act.

"IGGY, YOUR COOKING IS AWESOMELY SCRUMPTEXCELLENT! GUYS, EAT YOUR FOOD NOW!" she ordered. "Or else I could finish them for you," she added as an afterthought, before stuffing her mouth with the rest of her omelet.

We were all laughing when Angeline suggested doing a cheer before eating. Everyone nodded eagerly. Except for Fang and I. Obviously.

"How should it go?" Brandon asked.

"I was thinking of something on the line of 'WE LOVE IGGY'S COOKING!'" Iggy said.

"You wish," Alvin replied.

We finally decided on this cheer, which we came up with together after much heated discussion.

"Gimme a 3!"

"THREE!"

"Gimme a 4!"

"FOUR!"

"What do you get?"

"NINE CRAZY MONKEYS!"

And we all laughed and ate.


	7. Busted, Fax & Witches

Aloha people! THANK YOU SO MUCH! (x100000) :D Thanks for all your motivation, you guys rock! :D

Anyway some people –coughchloecoughh- have been bugging me about not putting enough Fax, so I'll try to in this chapter! :D Also, I'm ashamed to admit that I have totally forgotten about the food that Max stuffed into her pocket. :/ Heh. Soooooo yeah credits to Rian for reminding me and for the ideas. (It will come out in the later chapters!) And thanks, jazz. x. bean for the motivation threat because I have a strange huge paranoia of mutated clicky pens! :O (Not! Haha)

Oh yeah, how long do you think I should let this story be? Like as in how many chapters? Review! (The button's getting lonely!!)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Maximum Ride or any other characters associated with the story.

* * *

**Chapter 7: Busted, Fax and Witches**

"Whoever did it, you better own up right now." Mr. Danny was in a rage. He paced up and down in the little space he had as everyone looked at the floor. The whole room was completely silent. "It was not funny. Would you like people to do this to you? And the undergarment issue too. I repeat myself. Who did it?"

The person who was most likely to own up was definitely Brandon. I could see him sweating already. Damn it. Fang's hand snaked up and he squeezed my hand.

"If you do not own up, I will cancel the whole of today's schedule," he threatened. A few people groaned.

"I did it," Ken said and stood up. Huh?! What was he trying to do?

"Really?" Mr. Danny said and raised his eyebrows. "How did you do it then? Pick the locks? Get through the window?"

"I… Uh… I picked the locks. Yeah." Ken faltered and nodded.

"Show me," Mr. Danny ordered and pointed to the door. It was pretty obvious that Ken wasn't the one who did it, and he had just owned up to it so that we could continue with today's activities. No doubt that there'll be a fan club for him after this.

After five minutes of watching Ken unsuccessfully trying to pick the lock, Mr. Danny dismissed him, obviously not believing that he was the one who had played the pranks. I met Angeline's eyes and she had an impassive look on her face. However, her eyes showed panic. It was as if she was asking me if we should own up or not. I shrugged.

"Is there anything you want to share, Maximum?" Mr. Danny asked.

"No," I said.

"Did you do it?" he asked. Critical moment. Should I own up, or not? Heck, maybe if I got into trouble, he'd ground me or something and I won't have to go through the horrors of today's program. Just as I opened my mouth to say 'yes', Angeline stood up and interrupted me.

"I did it," she said, shamefaced.

"No, I did it," Zoe said and stood up.

"I was the one who did it," Michelle said and stood up.

"Me." Guess who. Fang. DUH.

"I did it, Mr. Danny. I'm so embarrassed and ashamed. Let the Flying Dutchman take my soul and take over Bikini Bottom, for I, Brandon, am responsible for those atrocious acts of perversion." Everyone giggled and Carmen burst into laughter. The sides of Mr. Danny's lips twithed.

"Don't believe them, I was the one," Alvin stood up and said.

"It was me!" Iggy declared and jumped up.

Soon, the whole class was standing up and declaring to Mr. Danny that each and every one of them had played the pranks. Heh. I never knew we had so much class spirit.

"So you're saying that each of you took out your own underwear and exchanged it with another person and just felt the urge to scream in the morning even though you consciously slept with it on your heads??" Mr. Danny asked, incredulous.

"Yes," everyone replied simultaneously.

"And everyone went into my room and carried me onto the beach and acted shocked today morning?"

"Yes," everyone said. There was a moment of silence as Mr. Danny regarded the whole class with an incredulous look plastered on his face.

"Why?" He mainly directed the question to Iggy. I bet that he probably thought that Iggy was the worst trouble maker in our class. Man was he wrong…

"Well, Mr. Danny, personally I thought you would look just so, _handsome_ sleeping. So I just couldn't resist myself. And you looked so beautiful, like an angel, clutching Bunny and all," Iggy said. I mentally whacked him on the head. That _idiot_! I could see some people rolling their eyes as they just realized what I did at that point of time.

"Iggy, I hate to break this to you but, you're blind." Mr. Danny said.

"Oh, right." Everyone was in stitches.

"I feel stupid," Iggy muttered.

"So the motive is still unclear," Mr. Danny said and the room was enveloped by total silence. Then he grinned.

"Well, I'm honored that you people actually want to watch my beautiful self sleep," he said. "So I will forgive you for this occasion. However, if the undergarment prank is actually what you say it is, then it seems that my form class is a perverted bunch of apes."

Everyone erupted into fits of giggles. Actually, the girls did. And the rest of the guys guffawed their hearts out. I grinned and the side of Fang's lips twitched.

Mr. Danny clapped his hands to silence everyone and he instructed us on our next activity. Guess what?

"Alright. Everybody, I want you to get changed into decent clothes to go out," our form teacher said, looking pointedly at some girls. "Top on the program for today; we're going to meet a coven of witches." He wiggled his eyebrows.

* * *

I pulled on yesterday's shorts and a clean shirt. Don't get me wrong, but yesterday's shorts were really comfortable. Fang wore the "I'M NO GOTH KID" shirt. I hope it doesn't stink…

"Max, can you do me a favour?" Fang asked. I sat on the bed beside him. Yesterday night had been alright. Nothing happened. I really hope you aren't thinking what I think you're thinking. You people have your minds in the gutter.

"Hmm?" I asked.

"Wear all my clothes before I do," he said.

"Riiiiggghhhhht."

"Serious."

"Weirdo," I said and punched him lightly on the shoulder.

"Weirdo in love," he whispered and pulled me into a warm embrace. I couldn't move – I was paralyzed. What the _h _was Fang trying to do?

Fang pulled me onto the bed with him, still hugging each other. My heart was thumping so loud, a rapper could just jump in and start rapping to the rhythm. I was on top of Fang, and I realized that he could see a lot of things from there and I blushed. He placed a hand on my cheek and gently pulled my face forwards his. My heart faltered as I realized what he was about to do. I mean, what are the chances of best friends falling for each other? Okay, so maybe a lot but, it's kind of awkward isn't it? Oh god, I'm rambling here, aren't I? I mean, yeah I love Fang and all, but it just feels so – Fang's lips crashed into mine and just like that, we were kissing. Easy.

Fireworks exploded, bells rung, angels sang, Iggy laughed, wolves howled – Iggy laughed? My mind immediately shut down.

"Max? What's wrong?" Fang asked. Then he realized that Iggy was in the room with us.

"Iggy?"

"Yes?" he replied.

"Do everyone a favor and dunk your head into the toilet bowl," I uttered. He cackled and Fang scowled. He just _had _to interrupt us every time, doesn't he?

"Just came up to say that the bus is ready and everyone is waiting for you two lovebirds," he laughed and walked away. "I just wish I could see the looks on your faces."

"Oh, you won't after I'm done with you," Fang muttered darkly and we both headed down to the bus.

* * *

"Are you sure there really is a coven of witches here?" Michelle asked doubtfully.

"The Flying Dutchman's real, why can't witches be?" Brandon said.

"Like I said, cut down on the Spongebob, man," Alvin told him.

We were outside a ramshackle cottage up on the hill. It looked like it came right of your average fairy tale book – the spooky tree and all. What? I do read Angel those kinds of books you know.

Mr. Danny knocked on the door and it slowly creaked open. An old woman, shriveled as a prune, peeped out.

"Who's that?" she croaked, squinting. "Do you have the frogs?" she suddenly barked.

"Hi! I'm Mr. Danny – I sent an email saying that my class and I wanted to meet your coven? And um, we don't have any frogs, you must have mistaken us for someone else," he said in a friendly voice.

"Reaaaaaaaaaaaallyyyyyyyy?" she drawled. God, that voice sent the chills down my back. And I'm not one to get freaked easily. Creepy. Maybe Brandon was right for once. Everyone became silent, and I could see Brigid and Mandy exchanging mortified looks.

"Um. Yeah. D-didn't you receive i-it?" Mr. Danny started to stutter.

"Not that I am aware of…" the old woman uttered.

"Oh. Okay then. We'll be g-going back now. Th-thanks anyway," Mr. Danny said, failing badly at the attempt to sound normal.

We all turned around and scurried back to the bus.

"Wait!" she exclaimed. The prune emerged from behind the door and scurried over. She was hunch-backed, but tall, and was clad in black robes. A cat prowled along her ankles and heck, did she look like a witch.

Her eyes were glued onto Fang. I felt him shudder a little beside me. This was big. I mean, I've known Fang for like, what, all my life?, and it was very seldom he showed emotion, after… that incident that had taken him weeks to recover from. Those were practically the worse days of my life, watching Fang suffer. And after that, he just, well, became impassive, hardly showing any emotion.

The old witch person scurried up to Fang and looked him up and down. He just stood there. Maybe she felt a sudden attraction to him. Weird. Funny, actually. Imagine Fang dating an old woman… I shudder at the thought.

"What's your name?" she asked shrilly, her voice suddenly high-pitched.

"Nick," Fang said.

"Liar," she hissed and whipped around to face Mr. Danny. "You are all welcome to stay here and meet my coven, The Dark Pines," she said in a sickly sweet voice. Talk about bipolar. But the way she said it kind of implied that we didn't really have any choice. Maybe she'd bewitch me to have wings. That'd be cool.

"Um. Sure. But I don't think we can fit into your, er, house," he said.

"Sit," she barked and we sat on the grass. I was squashed between Fang and Zoe. The rest of 34 were seated somewhere near too. Go bonding!

So here we are, sitting on the grass, about to have a coven of witches introduce themselves to us.

Talk about weird.


	8. The Witches

I have four words to say. YOU. GUYS. TOTALLY. ROCK. :D

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Maximum Ride or any characters associated with the story. And I would like to credit Phoenix Fanatic's idea of this so called "game" (read at the end – AFTER READING THE CHAPTER, don't peep okay!)

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**Chapter 8: The Witches**

Four other women entered our line of sight and they were dressed just like the first old prune. "We shall introduce ourselves and teach you alllllll about witchcraft," she introduced. We began to relax and started chattering among ourselves.

"My name is Florida Smithen and I am the head of this coven," she introduced.

"Geez, imagine if she really were Florida. James Patterson wouldn't be able to exist!" Zoe whispered, mortified.

"James Patterson's my all-time favourite author! He writes like absolutely amazing books!" I could practically see Carmen drooling. Heh. I should really check out this person. I wonder what kind of books he writes…

"As I was saying," Florida interrupted. We returned her our attention. She gestured to the slightly shorter woman next to her. All of them looked alike, actually. Only their heights differed. They were standing according to height, from the tallest to the shortest.

"I am Zachary Flowerbottom," she said. I swallowed the uncontrollable urge to laugh. Some people, however, were not as discreet. Or polite, for that matter.

"Isn't Zachary a guy's name?" Ken asked.

"Maybe she's undergone sex change!" Iggy whispered dramatically to Ken.

"You do know that I can hear you right, dearie?" Zachary said.

"Really?" Iggy said. "I'm so sorry, Zack!"

"Iggy, be polite," Mr. Danny reprimanded.

Zachary cleared his – I mean her – throat loudly and beckoned to the slightly shorter witch standing next to her.

"I am Wi Tch," she announced in a grand manner. I get the irony. Wi-Tch. How idiotic can their names get? I could see Iggy practically bursting as he held in probably all the snide comments he had.

Wi introduced the other two witches, who were shorter than her. The last witch was the shortest of all.

"This is Short Tee and that, at the far end is Joanna Juan-Jolene Johnjackson."

I bit my lip. These witches have hilarious names.

"Do you have any questions before we go on?" Zachary asked.

It looked like Iggy couldn't contain himself anymore and burst out saying, "Do you parents come from the mental hospital?"

Zachary smiled and said, "At least some of our names make sense, unlike yours. Iggy? Please."

That was rewarded with people erupting into laugher and lots of back slapping.

"Nice one!" Alvin shouted.

"Nice two!" Iggy muttered.

"How lame can you get, Iggy?" Angeline said and rolled her eyes.

"Well, at least my name isn't one from the opposite sex," he retaliated.

"Your name reminds me of some kind of animal. Like a hamster," Short suddenly croaked.

"At least I'm not called Tall," Iggy muttered.

As the idiotic conversation continued, I realized that Fang, who was next to me, was fidgeting in his seat. Then I noticed that Florida was staring at him. Everything else became a faint murmur in the background.

"Maybe she's secretly attracted to you," I whispered cheekily into his ear. He scowled.

"Jealous?" he asked sardonically, eyebrows raised. But I could see that deep inside he was actually kind of freaked out.

"You player," I punched his shoulder playfully. The sides of his lips twitched and he continued staring into space. I sighed.

There had been a time when he wasn't like that though. Fang hadn't always been so impassive before. He had been outgoing, friendly, and _talkative_. Do I see those jaws dropping? I've known him since we were tottering around in diapers – and a lot has changed since then. And this change had come about because of one tiny incident.

Fang choked on a fishball.

Fang had been talking and eating at the same time, when he just suddenly choked. Of course he got out of it alive, but after that incident, he became the total opposite of what he had been. For two whole weeks at school he had been acting strangely and after that, he told me that he had to change. Because according to him, people can die talking. And with that no-talking thing, came the mask – way to complete the image, Fang!

Raucous laughter broke me out of my train of thoughts and I saw Iggy standing at the front with the witches with his pants pulled down. What the _h_?!?!

"Mind telling me what's going on?" I asked Zoe. She was laughing so hard, I had difficulty understanding her.

"HAHAHAHA IGGY HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA MADE FUN OF HAHAHAHAHAHHA ZACHARY AHAHAHAHAHAHA AND ZACHARY TOLD HIM TO HAHAHAHAHHA STAND AT THE FRONT HAHAHAHAH AND THEN SHE JUST HAHAHAHAHHAHA PULLED HIS PANTS DOWN!!!! AND HE HAS NICE HAHAHAHAA BOXERS!! HAHAHAHA!!"

Iggy was attempting to regain pride by putting his pants back on again, but Zachary prevented him from doing so by whacking him each time he tried to. Even Mr. Danny was laughing his head off. Then I realized why.

Iggy was wearing pink boxers.

And I joined in the laughter.

"He must have gone shopping alone," Alvin chortled.

"Ah, the woes of being blind," Zoe laughed.

"What? What's wrong? Haven't you seen people in boxers?" Iggy shouted over the ruckus.

"Yeah, but not a blind guy in PINK with FLOWERS printed!" Michelle shouted. Iggy appeared deep in thought. He was probably wondering when he had bought those. This. Is. Just. Priceless.

"Where's a camera when you need one?" Zoe groaned.

I turned around and realized that Fang was gone. Huh?

I looked around the laughing crowd. He was nowhere to be seen. And, I all-too-soon realized, so was Florida.

This is bad.

Very bad.

* * *

Fang

"Soooo, Nick," Florida drawled. "You nauuughty little liar."

Annoyed was a huge understatement. I had to know why this witch kept staring at me. She had beckoned for me to follow her while everyone's attention was on Iggy and Zachary. So I had ignorantly followed and we were now in her cottage and I was sitting opposite her. The idiom _curiosity killed the cat _suddenly rang in my head, for one reason or another. I kept my impassive face on and just stared at her.

"Care to tell me your real name?" she asked in that creepy voice of hers. I just stared. I'm not ashamed to admit that this woman freaked the living livers out of me. Because if I'm afraid, everyone's afraid.

Roping in all my courage, I managed to ask her the question that I badly wanted the answer to.

"I want to know why you keep staring at me." There.

Florida looked at me weird. She cocked her head and her eyebrows shot up. Her cat jumped onto her lap and started hissing violently, and its hair rose.

"I'll be damned…" she croaked, her voice suddenly hoarse. "That… That voice… You… My hunch was right! You are the one!"

Crazy demented witch! I started out of my chair when she suddenly pounced on me and her cat raked it claws onto my leg. I bit my lip and winced. That was definitely going to leave a mark. I struggled to leave the cottage but Florida tackled me with a war cry and I realized that she had a chopper clutched tightly in her hand. I was stupefied. Was she a cannibal or something?! She started to tie me up with rope. Damn, that woman is _strong_. I think even Max couldn't beat her, with that tackle.

"Evil," I managed to say darkly. "What do you want from me?!"

"Dearie," she smiled sweetly, dangling the chopper dangerously close to my face. "You're going to be…"

* * *

Mwahahahaha! What does Florida want from Fang?

It's in this chapter, I swear.

Figured it out? I'll give you a hint – **IT STARTS FROM FANG'S POINT OF VIEW. **Try figuring it out yourself before you scroll down to get the answer.

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Don't peep!

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I know you want to know…

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This is getting really lame, isn't it?

Well let me tell you.

Read the **first letter** of each paragraph **starting from Fang's point of view**. (Somehow, I recall saying that but people seemed to overlook it) Then add it on to the last sentence of the chapter. Then you'll know! :O

This was kind of fun to write, given the restrictions :D You should try it out someday! So yeah credits to Phoenix Fanatic.

And yeah, review! (Incentive: Imagine me as a greedy Flying Dutchman who'll chase you around with –cough– mutated clicky pens until my hunger for reviews is satiated.)


	9. Rescue of the Century

AHHHHHHHHHH!! I practically screamed when I checked my email and saw that I had 19 new reviews. :D (Okay it may not seem much to you other successful people out there with, what, 100 over reviews?, but it is a lot to me! :D) So thank you! Free virtual cookies for everyone! :D –throws cookies in the air– (Dare I hope for just a response just as good for this chapter?)

Anyway, you smart people have figured out that, yeah the witches are going to use Fang as sacrifice… :O –sorry to those who didn't get it– Nice theory though, Someoneyoudontknowprobably. HAHAHAHA. I decided to put it in the chapter! Thanks :D

Disclaimer; I do not own Maximum Ride or any other characters associated with the story.

* * *

**Chapter 9: Rescue of the Century**

Fang

"…sacrificed!" Florida cackled.

Holy. Effin. Shit.

I just stared at her.

And stared.

And stared.

"What is it, honey, are you astooounnded by my beeeauty?" she drawled flirtatiously and giggled. I felt nauseous.

"You wish," I muttered. She placed the chopper down onto the floor and caressed my cheek. I almost gagged. But, seeing that I'm tied up here, what could I do, exactly?

"Such a waste," she mused. "You aaaare helluva looker. No wonder that girl kept staring at you."

"What girl?" I said, curiosity getting the better of me.

"Oh, that ugly one you sat beside," she replied in a huff.

Max?

"If she's ugly, you're – "

"You left us to entertain those toads!" another witch interrupted as the door slammed open. The four other witches entered the room. They all looked so alike, the only way to differentiate them was by their height.

"And what was with that email thing?" another demanded. "We don't even have a computer!"

Florida stood up. The other witches, over their rage, hadn't probably thought much about her being on the floor, but then seemed to realize that I was tied up there.

"What do you have here, eh Flo?" Zachary said.

"The one," Florida replied, in such a hushed and contrasting tone that I felt my skin prickle as her companions immediately became silent.

"Are you sure?" the shortest one barked. "What if it was a mistake, like the last?"

Florida turned to me abruptly and kicked me. "Speak, boy!" she ordered.

I kept silent.

"I said speak!" she demanded.

If she wanted me to speak, I sure as hell wasn't going to. She kicked me harder.

"The silent one, I see," Zachary muttered.

"Alright, we'll trust you, Flo. Even if it doesn't work, we'll still have something to feed the cats with," the one who had been silent all the while said. My stomach churned. Me, cat food?

They went outside and I was left alone in the cottage, five cats prowling around me.

Then the screaming began.

Thankfully, I only caught a bit of it.

"…_toenails…cats……toads ………sacrifice…snot…_" I'll pass on the whole snot thing.

It was eerie though. Their voices were high and shrill – not like they weren't already – and it, to put it crudely, freaked me out.

After minutes of that, they reentered the cottage, shut the door with a resounding slam and drew all the curtains, so that it was almost pitch-black in the cottage. Each of them grabbed a chopper and surrounded me, malicious looks on their faces.

My heart rate increased just by a tiny bit.

Then the door slammed open and I squinted against the light.

"You are _not_ giving Fang a sex change and making him one of you, you prunes!" Max screamed as she practically flew towards my direction. I blinked.

Iggy was on her heels and soon they were in hand-to-hand combat with the witches.

Did I ever tell you that Max can fight?

Because she damn well can.

And she looked so, so _hot _punching those witchbags.

But it made me worried too. Look at it this way; Max: strong, sexy, beautiful, captivating, amazing, wonderful, hot (there goes my dignity) young and feisty, versus old, pruny, witches who were strong as well (in Florida's case) and waving choppers around like madmen.

Oh, and not to forget Iggy, of course.

They were certainly no match for Max. And Iggy. But the choppers worry me.

Then, before I knew it, Iggy shouted "Duck!" and Max dived towards me and pushed me towards the doorway.

Just in time too, because the whole cottage freaking exploded just as we were out of there.

"Not even a fie," Iggy muttered to himself, a trace of annoyance in his voice. "I wish Gazzy was here."

"Pyromaniac much? How did you do that?" Max exclaimed, astonished. Iggy grinned.

"Beats me," he uttered. Then he looked at me and Max turned her attention to me.

"Are you alright?" she uttered, concerned. My heart gave a small jolt.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Are you sure? I saw them with the choppers and – " her fist clenched.

"I'm fine," I said. "I won't die anytime soon."

"I can't imagine life without you," she muttered, avoiding my gaze by looking at my chest instead. Okayyy? She was still sprawled over me, and we were in kind of the same position that we had been in the bedroom. My heart rate increased. Was this normal?

"Ditto," I said softly.

"Um, okay. Yeah. Okay. Good. Yeah. Uh. Yeah." Her face turned slightly pink.

I love it when she does that.

I stared at her lips. They were so enticing… Her face, her lips, her body, her personality, everything, made feel pure ecstasy over the fact that _she _was _my _best friend, and _she _couldn't live without _me_. And _she_ was leaning closer to _me_, her eyes shut.

I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her.

I know, you'll be going, _not very descriptive, are you, Fang? _but Max was mine and frankly speaking, I wouldn't want to let anyone else besides me experience the wonder of Max's kisses.

Don't blame me for not being able to control the possessive edge to my thoughts.

Iggy coughed.

"Go away, Iggy," Max mumbled against my lips and we continued kissing. Well that was a first.

I should get around to mixing with witches more often.

"I hate to break it to you guys, but firstly, even though I can't see I can freaking _hear_, so GET A ROOM! and secondly, the witches are getting away."

Max reluctantly broke away.

I liked that. She was _reluctant_.

"Do you want to report them or something?" she asked me.

I shrugged. They were coughing and stumbling away in the direction opposite of us, cats meowing pitifully.

"Can't be bothered to," Iggy said.

"Right then," Max replied. She shot the bird to their backs and then pulled me up. We beat the dust off ourselves.

"Seriously, Ig, how'd you get that bomb?" Max asked as we headed down the hill to the road. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder. She blushed a little, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Let's just say I have my sources," he answered and cackled. Then I remembered something.

"What was that bout having a sex change?" I asked.

"Nothing," she said, her face turning red at an alarming rate.

"Ah, the minds of girls nowadays," Iggy sighed. Max whacked him.

"You were the one who told me that you overheard them saying that they were going to chop his – "

"Whoa there," I said.

"Sorry," she muttered and smiled sheepishly at me. I shot Iggy a look that said that he was so going to get it later.

Oh right, he can't see.

Damn.

"Where's everyone?" I asked.

"They're at the zoo. But Mr. Danny allowed both of us to stay to look for you, and he gave us money for a cab back, because it'd be too inconvenient to go around the zoo looking for them. He was pretty worried. Anyway, I got the key to our chalet from Brandon," Max said.

"So," Iggy started, "we have the whole chalet to ourselves until they get back." He shot me a look. Max looked at him questioningly. It was a good thing she didn't understand.

I turned away, ashamed of the thoughts that were currently going through my mind.

Hormones freaking _suck_, I tell you.


	10. Shocks, Secrets & Surprises

First two-digit chapter! Yay! –cue cheers, whoops, yells, shouts, shrieks, screams and whatnot –

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Maximum Ride or any other characters associated to the story.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Shocks, Secrets and Surprises **

The first thing I did when we reached the chalet was to call dibs on the toilet. Because, man do I need a shower! Come on, you weren't the one kicking witch butt before barely escaping a bomb. Try it some day when you're free.

After the nice warm shower, I proceeded to fold my clothes and dump them on the bed. I plodded downstairs to the general living room area with the towel slung around my neck. The television was on, but Fang and Iggy were talking to each other. Actually, Iggy was doing most of the talking.

"You smell good," Fang said as his eyes met mine.

"And you don't – so it's your turn to take a bath!" I threw my towel at him.

"Would you like to take a shower again, Max?" Iggy taunted. "Maybe with Fang this time…"

Fang went upstairs chucking quietly to himself as I hurtled towards Iggy and started whacking him upside-down and inside-out. How is it possible that Iggy can freaking dodge?! Blind? Please! That boy will _pay _for his perverseness one day!

Hold it! Did Fang just chuckle?

I stopped short, my hand frozen in midair.

"Wassup? Having second thoughts about beating me up?" Iggy said.

"Did Fang just _chuckle_?" I said incredulously. Okay, maybe not that incredulously. It's not like I haven't heard Fang laugh to himself before. It was on very rare occasions that he laughed like that.

The last time he did was during that time when he came over to my house and Ella had barged in shouting, "Max! I was in the elevator at the mall and this little boy just _farted _there and then! There was even the gross sound! And – " That was when she realized that Fang was in the room with me. He had been chuckling quietly to himself.

Little boy? Fart…Gas? Gasman? Gazzy! Maybe that was why he had laughed.

But anyway.

That very sound was music to my ears.

* * *

I went up to the room to rummage through my bag to see if I had brought something to pass time. Watching the television was boring enough and with Iggy switching channels every ten seconds because he can't see anything at all. I found Fang in the room, beside the bed. His hair was wet and slick, and his towel had been dumped on the bed.

"There're ribs in your pants," Fang said, wrinkling his nose and holding my pants up between his thumb and index finger.

"Say what?!" I exclaimed and grabbed my piece of clothing from him. I reached into the pocket, and pulled out – holy crap! – a few ribs!

"Hey! I smell ribs! Can I have one?" Iggy bounced in and grabbed a rib before Fang and I could stop him. We just stared at him in shock. Well, mostly I did and Fang just sort of gaped in his own way.

"It tastes weird…" Iggy muttered and furrowed his brows.

"Iggy, those are ribs from the barbeque that I stuffed in my pocket," I managed before bursting into laughter. For a moment, Iggy's face was blank. Then he dashed into the toilet and started spitting those ribs out of his mouth. It was so dang funny! That should teach him a lesson about taking people's stuff without their permission!

"Serves him right," Fang commented.

"Yeah!" I agreed.

"Why did you even keep those ribs?" Iggy exclaimed as he returned to the room, his face screwed up in disgust.

"I forgot, actually. I think I was hungry. Then Angeline wanted to do those pranks. And Fang found them in my pants just now," I remarked.

"And what was Fang doing in your pants…?" Iggy's voice trailed off. A smile began to form on his lips.

"Yeah! What were you doing with my pants?" My tone was accusatory as I glared at Fang.

"What is this I hear about people doing with Max's pants?" Zoe said as she bounced into the room. I jumped. It looks like everyone was back from the zoo.

"Hey guys! Dig this! Fang was doing something with Max's pants!" she shouted outside. The immediate response was the sound of thudding feet as everyone ran up and crowded our room.

"OMG! I never knew Fang was a pervert!" Carmen exclaimed.

"I knew this would happen sooner or later," Alvin sighed and shook his head.

"Fang! This is so not you! If Spongebob did it, then it's okay, but you?! Unforgivable!" Guess who? Right, the dork.

After everyone was done with their outraged comments, we all glared at Fang, waiting for an answer.

He shifted his weight uncomfortably from one side of his body to another. His eyes locked with mine, and they practically screamed _Help me!_

I bit back a giggle.

"So, Fang?" Iggy demanded.

"If you don't answer we'll just take it that you're a pervert worse than Iggy _and _you're obsessed with Max," Michelle proclaimed.

Everyone else agreed on that.

"It smelled," he finally said after a moment of silence.

"What kind of excuse is that?" Angeline immediately screeched.

"If you just had a soccer match and perspired a whole lot and put your shirt here I doubt Max would take it and do whatever you did with it!"

"I didn't do anything!" he protested.

"Okay guys! Let's take a chill pill and let Fang and Max sort this out by themselves, shall we?" Iggy said, shooting me an evil look. Everyone else caught on easily and trooped down the stairs, exchanging remarks about Fang's recent outrageous act of perversion.

* * *

"So?" I demanded.

"What?" he replied, impassive as usual.

"Would you care to explain what you were doing in my pants?"

"Something smelled."

I raised an eyebrow. He sighed.

"You really want to know?" he asked and took a step closer to me.

"Mhmm," I replied, taking a step back.

"It's not like I could help it," he explained and took another step.

"Huh." I took a step back.

"What would you do…" Fang took a step forward and I took one back again. Geez, was this turning into a tango or something? Then I felt the wall against my back. Crapola. "…if I left my pair of pants…" he paused and leaned forward. "…on the bed?"

"Dunno," I said too quickly. He looked at me with a glint in his eye. This was so not Fang!

"Who are you and what have you done to Fang?" I asked and ducked to the side away from him.

He shrugged. I threw my pants on the bed.

Why does he have to look so dang good?

"Ugh, why are you _doing _this?!" I exploded.

"I'm in love," Fang whispered.

"With who?" I said blandly. "Brigid?"

"You," he said so quietly I could barely make out that single word.

Me? I almost laughed hysterically. Then I looked at him and realized that he was serious.

I was robbed of words.

On a whim, I turned around on my heels and fled downstairs and into the night, leaving Fang behind me.

* * *

I found comfort on a cliff that overlooked the sea. Plopping down, I started to ponder about stuff. I'm just making things harder for myself.

Sigh.

Fang.

Fang.

Fang.

Dang. I'm in denial.

My mind flashed back to the past day.

"_I'm looking forward to it cos you'll be there," he said to me. I looked into his eyes and could see that he meant it sincerely._

"_Uh. Okay."_

"_Weirdo," I said and punched him lightly on the shoulder._

"_Weirdo in love," he whispered and pulled me into a warm embrace. _

"_I can't imagine life without you," I muttered._

"_Ditto," he said._

"_Um, okay. Yeah. Okay. Good. Yeah. Uh. Yeah."_

_He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me._

I hadn't really given those moments much thought. I knew that possibly, I could be in love with my best friend. Actually I _am_, I guess. But I was never able to face the fact. And it seems that I still am.

Fang was more of a brother, actually. Ew. Would that be like, incest? And then I had wondered what kind of people he liked. But before, he'd never really told me about how he felt about me. Maybe all I was to him was just a best friend. But –

"Max?" I heard Carmen's voice say timidly.

"Hmm?" I muttered, distracted. Come on, I was trying to think things through.

"Do you mind if I sit down with you?" she asked.

"Nope," I said and patted the ground. I stared into the distance. Just to be able to fly… I'd be able to feel so free. Escape from problems.

"What's up?" she asked as she sat down beside me. She crossed her legs and looked out too.

"Wouldn't it be so great to fly?" I suddenly said to her. "Running away from problems would be so easy."

"You see, we can't escape from reality," she said realistically. "They'll only come back to haunt you, larger than ever."

I thought about that.

It was kind of true, actually.

"Yeah…" I mused.

"So what happened between you and Fang?" she asked again, gently.

"Nothing much. We just talked." What? I'm not one to explain things.

"And you ran away because…?"

"He said he loved me," I said quietly.

"And why is that a problem?" she asked. I heard confusion in her voice. "Shouldn't you be happy?"

"What do you mean happy?" I asked suspiciously.

"Come on, give up the act. We all know that you and Fang are like totally made for each other," she said simply.

"Yeah," a male voice piped up. "Fangy and Maxy are a purrrrfect couple." I turned around stiffly as I registered the voice.

"Ari!" I said, shocked. I immediately stood up and pulled Carmen up. Ari was a few feet in front of us. I pushed Carmen behind me, trying to protect her. Our backs to the ocean, we were cornered.

"Hello Max," he grinned in a menacing way. "You've grown. And who may your little friend here be?"

"Hi! I'm Carmen! You must be… Ari?" the unsuspecting girl said. Ari smiled and his teeth glinted in the darkness. I flinched.

"Yes, yes. Has Max been talking about me? I feel honoured." I gritted my teeth.

"Actually, I just heard her saying your name just now." Carmen smiled sheepishly. I groaned inwardly. Time to cut the crap.

"On the count of three, run back to the chalet and call Fang, you hear me?" I muttered urgently into Carmen's ear.

"Okayyy…" She shot me a confused look.

"Sharing secrets now, are we?" Ari said. Hell yeah.

"3!" I shouted and lunged at Ari. He snarled and Carmen stood stock still for a moment, obviously stunned.

"RUN!" I screamed. She shook her head and ran as fast as she could (I hope), leaving Ari and I a punching and kicking mess.

I aimed a kick at Ari's head and it met the target with a rather disturbing crack. After blocking a punch to my face, I felt one go to my stomach. I dug my heels onto the ground, preventing myself from flying off the cliff. Ari obviously had the advantage because of the position we were both in. One push, and goodbye Max! However, I was stronger and faster than him. But I was freaking _cornered_!

"So, Max, just like old times, huh?" he uttered, panting slightly after exchanging a few more blows. I growled.

"You… Are… Going… To… Pay… You… Freaking… Pedophile..." I said as I punched him with every word. He blocked them with ease, but neither of us were spent yet. I wiped the blood off my mouth with the back of my hand.

Ari was going down.

And I mean it.


	11. Truths, Lies & Pervs

Chapter 11, yay! Sorry if I confused some of you guys… Anyway, updates are getting later and later! (Oh nooooooooooooooo) Because exams are overrrrr, all the after-school activities have started again. Yeap. And I need the _write _inspiration! Geddit? Like, write and right. Ah well. Go corny.

Anyway, I'm not really good at writing fighting scenes, so sorry. And sorry if you don't get the lemonade and chocolate thing.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Maximum Ride or any characters associated with the story.

* * *

**Chapter 11: Truths, Lies and Pervs**

"Pedophile?" Ari momentarily paused. A look of surprise flickered across his face.

"I saw you with that kid! It got me scarred me for life!" I yelled.

"Oh, what do I care about what you call me?" he growled and got into a fighting stance.

"Get away from her!" Fang shouted as he ran towards us.

Then Ari made his first mistake.

He turned around.

I'm not sure how it was possible for me to send Ari a flying kick from my position, but I still did it. Ari dropped onto the ground with a loud thud just as Fang caught up, barely even panting. He immediately leaped on Ari and rained punches onto his stomach. I edged away from the edge of the cliff so that there won't be a chance of Ari pushing me off again.

I stood by and watched, waiting to get into action. Fang was holding off well on his own, and I didn't want to get into his way. Ari yelped as Fang managed to get him in the collarbone. He snarled and before I knew it, he managed to clap his hand around Fang's ears.

"Shit," I muttered and launched myself at Ari. I copied his move and cupped my palms around his ears. But I did it Max style, 'cause I'm funny that way.

Ari shrieked and dropped onto the ground like a rock, writhing in agony. His eardrums had most probably popped.

Ouch.

I looked at him, wiping the blood away from my nose.

So you must be wondering, who the heck is Ari?

Remember what I said about Jeb? And about me and my… disturbing past that I didn't want to talk about? Well, here goes.

You see, Jeb Batchelder works at this… lab. I don't know what they do there, but I have a pretty vague idea. Something to do with genetics, I guess. I don't want to talk about it. Anyway, I met Ari from there. Obviously, Fang knew about Ari since he was my best friend after all. He knew everything about me.

Nah, he's not a stalker or anything. Fang's my best friend!

I blinked rapidly as a flashback ran through my mind.

Jeb had brought me to the lab one day.

* * *

"_Max, you can do whatever you want here. Just don't get lost, 'kay?" he said to me kindly. I nodded and my hair flew into my face. I blew it out._

_I had been wandering around the hallway, peeping into rooms. When I turned a corner, I had the first shock of my life._

_I saw Ari pinning a younger kid against the wall. His body was pressed against the kid's and he was whispering something into her ear. The little girl looked frightened out of her wits._

"_What are you doing?" I asked._

_Ari and the girl turned to look at me. The girl sent me a "help me!" look and I immediately knew what Ari had in mind._

"_You pervert!" I screamed and ran back to Jeb, still screaming._

_After a private session with Ari, Jeb told me that Ari had simply been bullying the girl. He had nothing indecent in mind._

_But it had scarred me all the while.

* * *

_

"This won't be the last you hear from me," Ari hissed and picked himself up clumsily before running off into the darkness like a drunkard.

Way to break my train of thoughts.

I felt Fang's arms, ropy and hard, wrap around me.

"You okay?" he asked quietly.

"Mhm," I muttered. "Thanks. You okay?"

"Yeah."

"Your ears are alright, right?" I asked worriedly.

"Yeah."

I sighed. Fang remained silent. As usual. However, he didn't let go of me.

I liked it like that.

After a moment, a thought occurred to me.

"What are we going to tell the others? I mean like, Carmen was there and all!" Crap.

An unholy grin played with Fang's mouth. Did he learn that from Iggy or something? I mean like, yeah, it's not everyday Fang smiles like that.

In fact, that was the first time I saw him smile like _that_. Iggy's evil grin.

This was going to be really bad.

* * *

"He was going to WHAT?!"

"OMG!"

"R…ra… I don't even want to say that word!"

Hah. Fang and his brilliant idea. Now everyone thinks that Ari was a pedophile who preyed on helpless, little girls like _moi_. Amazingly, Fang had managed to explain that in so few words I didn't think it was possible.

"Yep," he said.

"And then Fang must have saved Max!" Angeline shouted.

"Yeah…" Iggy said thoughtfully. "The handsome prince saving the damsel in distress. What could this lead to?"

Fang started to look uncomfortable. Hooray for backfiring plans!

"But I don't understand! I mean like, that Ari person even knew Max and Fang's names!"

I snapped my head up and looked at her. This could get out of hand. They musn't know.

"Stupid stalker," Fang muttered loudly and stalked up to the room.

Everyone laughed.

Fang and his brilliant ideas.

* * *

"What are you doing here?" I scowled at Fang. He shot me a look.

"What do you think I'm doing here?" he replied.

This was the morning of the third day of the whole chalet, and we were at the Botanical Gardens. I know! How boring can this get? Time flies. It seemed like yesterday when we arrived at the chalet.

"To sell lemonade," Alvin said in a serious tone.

"Nah, it's chocolate." Fang's face was dead set and Alvin's face scrunched up.

"You need to poo?" he asked, eyebrows raised.

"You have not smelled those ribs," Fang shot me a deadly look. I felt heat creep up my face and I looked away pointedly.

"Why are there so many people in the toilet?" Zoe questioned as Carmen, Angeline, Michelle, and herself piled into the public toilet.

Firstly, no, the boys weren't in the girls' toilet and neither were the girls in the boys' toilet. Unfortunately, there was only one toilet near where we were in the botanical gardens and anyone could use it. Hence the large queue outside.

"I don't know!" Carmen said.

"Uhh…" Brandon muttered.

Just then, Iggy emerged from the restroom with a pair of scissors in his hand and his hair looking… weird.

"Your hair looks, uhm, different?" Zoe said hesitantly.

"Well, it was getting kind of long, so I decided to cut off a bit of the fringe and halfway through, I sneezed."

I snickered as the others burst into laughter at the idiocy of it all. Carmen entered the unoccupied bathroom, giggling like a maniac.

"Why are you even cutting your hair in the freaking _botanical gardens_, dude?!" Alvin said incredulously.

"Iggy… you're _blind_. How can you cut your own hair? What if you like, poke yourself in the eyes with the scissors or something?!" Zoe said, alarmed.

"Do you actually think I'm that stupid?" He scowled, crossed.

"Yep," we said in unison.

"Oh thanks a lot!"

I heard a faint burst of giggles coming from the toilet.

"Stop… making… me… laugh!" Carmen's small and high-pitched voice squealed. "Calm down, breathe in, breathe out," we heard her say to herself.

Fang raised an eyebrow.

She flushed and came out of the toilet giggling.

"Oh my god trust me on this, NEVER LAUGH WHILE YOU PEE. Or never pee while you laugh. Because it'll be like super hard! Yeah!" She jumped up and down.

"Why?" I asked, curious.

"Come on! Look! It's the squatting toilet. We can't even aim properly! And when you're like laughing, it goes all – "

"No need the gory info, thank you very much," Alvin said, looking grossed out.

"Well, at least we men can aim properly after years of practice," Iggy said, with a hint of pride in his voice.

"Would you like the honor of teaching us the ole' arts of aiming, master?" Michelle asked.

"OMG major ewwness!" Carmen squealed. I was speechless.

"I read about some thingamajig that can help people aim!" Angeline suddenly piped up after being miraculously silent for so long.

"People?" Fang said doubfully, as Alvin went into the toilet for his turn.

"Girls. Yeap."

I flinched at the horrible images going through my mind right now.

"Unnecessary info!" I shouted and covered my ears with my hands.

"Totally," Michelle said.

"Perv!" Zoe exclaimed.

Angeline smiled and shot us her classic perverted look.

This is the kind of people I've been around with.

I know, it's sad.


	12. Don't Talk to Random Strangers

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Maximum Ride or any characters associated with the story.

* * *

**Chapter 12: Don't Talk to Random Strangers (Especially Those Whom You Meet at the Botanical Gardens)**

So Fang, Iggy and I decided to move off first to the main group while the others wait for each other at the toilet. I was quite the surprised one when I saw two people arguing among themselves about… the word smexeh? Smexy? Sexy?

"I don't understand why you can't say sexy just like NORMAL people do!" a short girl with hair tied up in a bun said angrily to an even shorter girl. She looked kind of like a… mouse. Hey, don't get me wrong. But she really does.

"It's smexeh! S-M-E-X-E-H!" Mousy said.

"Ugh! For the umpteenth time! It's SEXY! S-E-X-Y!"

"But smexeh sounds nicer! It sounds cooler too!"

"Oh, why do I even care?!" Bun-hair said.

"How would I know?" Mousy replied.

"How did we even get on this topic in the first place?!" Bun-hair exclaimed.

"You saw that hot guy!"

"What hot guy? It wasn't me! It was YOU!"

"Alright fine, both of us!" Mousy scowled.

"Is that _him_? Oh, my god!" Mousy squealed and Bun-hair looked at her weirdly.

Then I realized I had been staring at them for quite some time and Fang and Iggy were looking at me. The way those girls were eyeing Fang made me feel like doing something-worse-than-what-I-have-ever-thought-of-doing-to-Iggy to them.

"Thank goodness you're not like _that_," Fang muttered as he shifted his weight from one foot to another uneasily.

"Yeah, she'd be, like, probably drooling over both of us every minute of the day because we're so hot. And smexeh." Iggy grinned. I whacked him on the head.

"Look! Even he uses the word smexeh!" Mousy suddenly exclaimed and came over excitedly, pinpointing Iggy.

What can I say? He brought it on himself.

"Hi! I'm Zelda! What's your name?" she thrust her hand at Iggy and he obligingly shook it.

"I'm Iggy," he said in his manliest voice. I could tell. But you see, his manliest voice isn't really that manly.

Poor thing.

"Let's make some crap happen!" Zelda exclaimed happily. I don't know if this was good or bad, but Bun-hair was staring at Iggy.

"And how can crap happen?" I eyed her warily.

"I don't know! Hey! Did you watch Dot and ADD on youtube? It's like totally funny. There's this line which goes like, OH NO, I ATE TOO MUCH BACON AND I TURNED INTO A PIGGG!"

Fang raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, anyway, this is Natalie. Who are you guys?" she said to Fang and I after introducing her friend. "Are you like, going out or something?"

I leaped away from Fang.

"Going out? Uh, no. Nope. Nuh-uh. Nah." Can pigs fly? No.

"Oh. OMG! NAT! THAT MEANS HE'S SINGLE!" she squealed. My eyes hardened and I clenched my fist. Bun-hair, or Natalie, just nodded absently, still staring at Iggy.

"He's smexeh," she muttered absently. Then, she seemed to collect herself and realized what she said. "Okay, I didn't say anything, alright!"

Zelda was having a conversation with Fang. He just nodded absently at every pause. Which was kind of little. Geez, this kid could hit it off with Nudge.

I felt a pang of homesickness right then.

What would Ella be doing? She'd probably be out shopping with Angel and Nudge again. Mum would be at work on some sick animal. And Total would be… sniffing some other dog's butt on the television, I guess.

You can never doubt the madness of dogs.

"So! Do you like, wanna go out sometime or something?" Zelda asked Fang. While I had zoned out, I realized that Natalie and Iggy were exchanging information about each other and Zelda and Fang had been continuing their conversation. I felt a pang of jealousy.

Nah, it must be the homesickness.

I wondered what it would be like if I was really going out with Fang. But then my mind flashed back to the previous days. That would never happen, I guess. Even if I loved him. Things would be awkward anyway.

"Sure," Iggy said enthusiastically.

"No," I said.

"Anything," Fang said.

"Come on, don't be a spoilsport," Iggy coaxed.

"Yeah, don't," Zelda said and a dark look crossed her face.

Huh.

"Oh look, Brandon's calling us. Bye," Fang said and dragged Iggy and I off.

Somewhere, deep down inside me, I knew that this wouldn't be the last we hear from those two. Especially Mousy. Call it womanly instincts.

* * *

"Where were you guys? Why did you take so long?" Alvin asked, obviously annoyed.

"Met some people," I replied curtly and led the way back to the group.

"And…?"

"Nothing interesting happened."

"Well, Iggy seems to have a different view on that," Angeline said and looked at Iggy, who was describing Natalie's 'wonderfully harmonious voice'.

I almost threw up there and then.

"Jealous?" Fang muttered in my ear as we followed Mr. Danny into some garden. In this huge garden. Heck, it's the Botanical Gardens, people!

"Of what? Your fashion sense? Nah," I said. We were trailing at the back of the group.

"You know what I mean."

"Nope," I said.

"Okay," he said and reached into his pocket to grab his phone. Then he started texting someone. I peeped.

'_Yo Zel, wanna meet up?'_

"What are you doing texting her?!" I exclaimed.

"She's nice. Unlike you," he said.

I glared at him and stormed off. I could practically feel the steam coming out of my ears and nostrils.

Stupid Fang.

Stupid, cocky best friend.

Then I heard a scream. I whipped my head around and saw something that I didn't really want to see.

The witches were back.

* * *

"Grab him! Now!" Florida ordered.

I felt as if someone had whacked my heart with a hammer when Zachary grabbed Fang and tied him up.

Remember those abnormally strong witches? Even Ari didn't stand a chance.

The class was at the next garden, and in the only people nearby were Fang, who was tied up at the moment (no pun intended), the witches, Zelda, Natalie and me.

I never trusted them anyway.

The witches were on broomsticks. Zelda was sharing one with Zachary and Natalie one with Short. Fang was on the back of Florida's broom.

Florida sat on her broomstick.

Should I call for help? No use getting other people hurt. So that left me against the seven of them.

"Fly, broom, fly!" Florida ordered her broom.

"Fly broom fly!" the witches shouted together.

Nothing happened.

I wondered how they got here in the first place.

"You stupid broom! Fly, for Toads' sake! Fly!!" Zachary screeched at her broom.

"I told you we should have tested the brooms on the way here! And then you had to go, Noooo, what is they see us?" Wi threw up her arms in frustration.

How I can remember their names, you ask? I have a good memory. And then I realized that three of the five witches were holding choppers. Dang those witches.

"What is going on here?" Mr. Danny's voice boomed. I jerked in surprise.

"Mr. Danny! Stay back! They have choppers!"

"As in the helicopters? What's wrong?" he asked, confused.

"No, I mean CHOPPERS!" I screamed as Wi launched an attack at me after throwing her broom to the side.

I dodged it and slapped her.

"Ow!" she screamed. "You're spoiling my beautiful complexion!"

Hey, new trick.

"Slap them!" I ordered Mr. Danny and we lunged forward.

The witches were fighting a losing battle. It was time they realized it.

"This won't be the last you hear from us!" Florida screamed and ran off. Her coven followed her. Natalie and Zelda trailed at the back.

I locked eyes with Zelda. She was looking at Fang longingly.

I shot her the bird and gave her a look that said, _bring it on, sista_.


	13. You Know How Much I Hate Pot Holes

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Maximum Ride or any characters associated with the story.

* * *

**Chapter 13: You Know How Much I Hate Pot Holes**

"Fang! Are you alright?" I rushed over to his side.

"Fish balls…" he groaned and rolled onto the ground.

"Fish balls?!" Mr. Danny exclaimed as he scurried over. "My gosh… Max, I think you better bring Fang back or to the hospital. Those witches! I shouldn't have brought you people there. He went missing there right? I bet that was the work of the witches…"

Kind of slow today, are we, Mr. Danny?

"Is everything alright?" a little boy's voice piped up. I looked up and met eyes with… the little kid I saw with Fang and Iggy that day. Wait, the Gasman, I think. Yeah. He was licking an ice cream.

"Hi Gazzy," I said and returned my attention to Fang. Wait a second… "Gazzy?! What're you doing here?"

"I'm enjoying nature."

"More like ruining it with your unfortunate occurances…" Fang mumbled below me. Oh good he was awake.

"Fang! Are you alright?" I asked him. He squinted his eyes at me and smiled faintly. Then he started groaning again.

"Fish balls…" Fang muttered.

What is w_ith _him?! One moment he's smiling and the next he's rolling on the ground as if it was nobody's business! Did those witches inject him with something or what?

"Do you want to eat some fish balls? I think I have some leftovers from the barbeque! It's in the fridge in my chalet."

"You still keep leftovers?" I scrunched up my nose. Ew. Fang made a weird noise, rolled over and threw up.

"Here, I'll gather everyone and we'll go back," Mr. Danny said, worried.

"And do you have anything to entertain them with for the whole afternoon?" I questioned, an eyebrow raised.

"Um," he hesitated. "I could dance for them. I learn ballet!" Mr. Danny started prancing around, doing pirouettes and whatnot.

You're real lucky you didn't get to see that. My poor eyes. Thank goodness there weren't any people walking around in this part. It would be total humiliation.

"That'd be a total waste of tomatoes," I snorted.

"Why would they need tomatoes? Ballet is a form of art using the body itself. There's no need for tomatoes," Mr. Danny protested.

"To throw at you," I said. He rolled his eyes. Fang shifted below me. Oh dang.

"Alright, here's my key. Bring him back and get him some fishballs, if that's what he wants."

"Yeah alright. Thanks."

My form teacher helped to hail a cab and we both labored to haul Fang into it. Well, he just cheered me on. Moral support, according to him. The dork.

After I supported Fang into the cab, Mr. Danny passed me some money to pay for the fare. I got in and slammed the door shut. Mr. Danny's worried face appeared pressed at the window. I nodded to him and smiled wearily and the cab left.

I gagged. Ew. Face oil on the window.

I looked out the window as the scenery flashed past. My mind started to wander as I thought about the past few days. It had been great, but tiring. I had had more laughs during this outing compared to the past fourteen years of my life before the twenty-third of April this year. And I had gotten closer to my classmates and Fang.

I smiled, bemused when I remembered objecting violently against this whole class chalet.

"You're beautiful when you smile like that," Fang's voice interrupted my train of thoughts. Startled, I turned to meet the sight of a perfectly fine Fang whose sides of lips were twitching.

"Um. Okay," I said. "You're alright now?"

"I was alright from the start," he chuckled quietly. I frowned.

"From the start?"

"From the start," he repeated.

"As in, after the witches left?

"Yeah."

"And when you started moaning about fishballs?"

"Yeah."

"You mean, you were faking it all the time?!" I exclaimed.

He nodded absently. Geez, I never knew my best friend was this cunning. But why would he be pretending in the first place?

"But what for?" I asked. "You made me worry for no reason, you ass!" I burst.

Fang, who was sitting at the other window seat, looked at me straight in the eye. He moved next to me and leaned forward so that his nose was almost touching mine. I didn't move. I could barely even breathe. My heart started thumping unevenly again. Dang. I dug my fingers into the seat.

"How was I going to get you alone again?" he whispered.

The taxi driver must be so entertained. Or disgusted. Whatever. Why do I even care? Why am I even thinking about the taxi driver when Fang's face was just freaking _inches _from mine?!

Fang pulled back and smiled to himself again. He's sure becoming some happy kid these few days.

I blushed furiously.

"What was that about?" I whispered, not wanting the taxi driver to hear.

He shrugged.

"What're you smiling about?" I said, annoyed. I could still feel the heat on my face.

"You were worried," he stated simply.

I didn't bother to ask. Fang was getting stranger and stranger every day.

"What's that?" Fang suddenly said, pointing to the oil marks on the window.

"You don't want to know. That's Mr. Danny's f – "

Fang leaned over and stretched his arm to the window. I pushed myself back a little. Come on. Look where his arm is! Too close for comfort, if you know what I mean.

Then, the cab ran over a pot hole and Fang and I jolted. And what happened next made me go a shade of red darker than a tomato.

Why does it seem like everything is against me right now?

I FREAKING HATE POT HOLES!

Fang's face was as red as beetroot as he retreated as far as he could away from me.

"Sorry," he muttered.

I grunted.

I looked at the rearview mirror. The taxi driver was grinning to himself. Heat crept up my face again.

The uncomfortable silence was overbearing, but it went on like that till we reached the chalet. Fang didn't look at me directly, but I would always see him look at me from the corner of his eyes. Then we would lock glances, and look out the window again.

Talk about freaking awkward.


	14. The Deep Dark Secrets Some Teachers Keep

I love you guys :) So here's a fast-update present for you. –grin– So for those few who didn't get it, at the pot hole, Fang "accidentally groped her", to quote Someoneyoudontknowprobably. Haha. And no, I'm not some weird pervert. :D

Oh and did anyone notice, what the heck happened to Gazzy? Haha I totally forgot about him until I re-read chapter 13. My bad! Let's just say he happily skipped back and continued "enjoying nature". Oh and LovelyNBlue, Natalie & Zelda aren't witches. :D

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Maximum Ride or any characters associated with the story.

* * *

**Chapter 14: The Deep Dark Secrets Some Teachers Keep**

"Ew."

"This is just plain gross," I said, looking at the fishballs in the fridge. Flies were buzzing around the leftover food – you name it, Mr. Danny's got it. Fishballs, chicken wings, ribs, sausages. Geez. And I don't even know how the flies could have gotten into the fridge.

"I'm not eating that," Fang said, a horrified expression on his face.

"But you've been groaning about fish balls!" I protested, smirking.

"You know I was just pretending," he said. I used a fork and dug a fishball out. A few flies followed it. I put on my best serious look, and looked at Fang.

"Come on, be a good boy," I said. I was laughing hysterically inside at the expression on his face. And you know Fang doesn't usually show emotion, so he was obviously pretty terrified.

"No," he said and covered his mouth with his hand. I smiled the most wicked smile I could muster (being with Iggy has its perks) and brandished the fork with the fishball on it. Fang gave it one look, locked eyes with me, and dashed up the stairs.

Laughing, I chased him.

Once I was upstairs, I met a shut door. I hammered on it.

"Fang, open the door!" I said.

Silence.

"Fang!" I shouted. "Open up!"

Silence.

"Alright, I won't make you eat the fishball! Now will you please open the door and let me in?" I said.

Still no response.

"I'm going down!" I shouted and walked away.

Silence.

I wonder what he was doing.

I trooped down the stairs, letting Fang be. Boys will be boys, after all. Weird, alien creatures. I threw the rotten fishball into the dustbin and washed the fork. Then I switched on the television. I wonder when Fang would decide to come down.

However, after half an hour of waiting and no Fang showing up, I reached the decision that something must definitely be wrong.

"Fang! You open this door right now, you hear me!" I shouted, hammering on the door as loudly as I could. Maybe he had fallen asleep. What if he fainted? Oh gosh no, please no.

I heard some movement in the room and heaved a sigh of relief. After a while, the door creaked open.

"Yo," Fang said. I rolled my eyes at him.

"What've you been doing in there?" I asked.

"Nothing."

"Really?" I asked, incredulous. Can't be. "Then what have you been doing for the past thirty three minutes and – " I looked at my watch. " – twenty eight seconds? Definitely not sleeping!"

Oh shit.

I did not just say that.

"Thirty three minutes and twenty eight seconds?" Fang repeated, eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Um. Nothing," I said and flushed. The sides of Fang's lips twitched, and he finally smiled.

"Alright, I'll show you," he finally stated and pulled me into the room which I finally realized was Mr. Danny's. It was full of things. Jeez, for a four-day chalet, this guy sure brought a whole lot of stuff.

"Look at that," Fang said and pointed to a pile of books in a corner.

"What's that?" I asked. Then, a horrifying thought crossed my mind. "Wait, Mr. Danny reads _porn_?!"

"No, silly," he said and pulled me there. I saw a pile of romance novels. Actually, I didn't even know what those books were about until I saw the top of the pile, which was a book called Crockett's Seduction. (A/N: Thank Google. I have nothing to do with it!) And then it was pretty obvious what those books were.

"Ew. Ew ew ew ew ew!" I said, grossed out. "Mr. Danny reads _these_ kind of books?! EW!"

I picked it up and rifled through the pages. Some pages were crinkled and folded. I read one, wondering why, and immediately regretted that decision.

"Ew," I said and threw the book back onto the pile. Fang was laughing silently to himself.

"Look at that," he said and pointed to a photo on the bedside. That certainly made me curious, and I walked to the bedside table and examined the framed photograph.

It was a picture of Mr. Danny and a bald guy. They were both grinning from ear to ear and had their arms around each other. I had a bad feeling about this, but maybe they were good friends?

There was another photo behind it and I picked it up.

The sight of it made me gag.

It was a picture of Mr. Danny and that same baldie _kissing_.

ZOMG! – to quote Nudge.

"H – h – he – he's – he's GAY!" I managed.

I heard Fang chuckle.

"Oh my GOSH, I never knew. No wonder he's so weird! But, I still can't believe it. Mr. Danny's GAY!"

Fang chortled.

"Priceless," he said.

"What is?"

"Your expression," he said.

I scowled. I probed the room for any more pictures of the couple. Not that I was curious or anything.. I just wanted to know, you know. Ugh. Never mind.

A book nestled under the pillows on the bed caught my attention.

"What's that?" I asked and reached over to pull the book out. It was a copy of _Pride and Prejudice_.

The book was opened to the twenty-ninth page. What was the book doing there?

Fang shifted his weight uneasily from one leg to the other.

Then it clicked.

"You've been reading Pride and Prejudice, haven't you?" I accused.

"No!" he replied, a little too quickly and a little too loudly, if you ask me.

"Fang, Fang, Fang." Oh gosh I love saying his name. "Why would you be reading romance books?"

* * *

Fang

I sighed as Max asked me that question.

It was the stupidest question she had ever asked. For someone so intelligent, she could be an idiot sometimes. The answer was just so freaking obvious! I groaned inwardly. I should have found a better hiding place for the book.

The answer, Max was because of you. How else was I going to know what girls like? How else could I learn about how to win your heart, Max?

* * *

Fang was silent for a while.

"Idiot," he mumbled and pulled me into a tight embrace. Idiot? I tried to comprehend his actions while I stared at his shoulder.

I used to remember the time when I had been taller than him. Ha-ha. And now – BAM – Fang's grown as tall as a giraffe.

But I digress.

I felt his hand pull my face upward and saw the softened expression on his face. The way he was looking at me reminded me of how Angel looked at Celeste. And you know how much that kid loves her bear. She'd die, no she'd _kill_, for it. But I shouldn't flatter myself. Fang, loving me?

"_Weirdo in love," he whispered and pulled me into a warm embrace._

His voice rang in my head, like a bell. I hadn't given that much thought then, but now?

"What are you thinking about?" he asked quietly.

"You," I muttered and looked down. I looked up to see him grinning like a maniac.

This guy was definitely becoming some emotional ball of yarn during these few days. Few strings running loose. Or was it screws? Dang, why does Fang keep muddling my thoughts up?

"Max," he said in a weird voice. He leaned down and kissed me, softly and sweetly.

"I love you."


	15. How to Win a Girl's Heart

Sorry if Fang's out of character before. I know Fang + romance novels = a big NONO. But all will be explained. :] So thank you Mo for inspiring this chapter! Haha.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Maximum Ride or any characters associated with the story. Neither do I own the list of How to Win a Girl's Heart. (Heck I don't even know whether it's true or not... I found it on Google again. :D)

* * *

**Chapter 15: How to Win a Girl's Heart**

Fang

After I said those three words to Max, I immediately tensed up, waiting for her response.

_Please don't run away, please don't run away, _I silently prayed.

Max stayed silent for a while and she appeared deep in thought. To be able to be in her mind and know what she was thinking… I envy Angel for that ability.

I still had her in my arms, and she was staring at my shoulder, thinking intently. She looked beautiful when she does that. Heck, she looked beautiful no matter what she does.

Finally, Max opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something and immediately shut it on a second thought.

"What?" I said, annoyed. She was not going to leave me hanging like this after I actually admitted something as huge as that! Well, at least she hadn't run away. Max smiled coyly.

"Did you get that from that book you were reading?" she asked.

"Get what?"

"The whole kissing me sweetly thing and then saying that you love me after that," she replied and smirked.

"Nope," I replied tightly. "The book was stupid."

"Why'd you read it though? Fang and romance… weird," she absently remarked.

Should I tell her? Ugh.

"Last resort," I muttered.

"Huh?"

I sighed heavily.

* * *

_Multiple Flashbacks_

The Previous Week

"Fang! Get off the computer now!"

"Later, Mum."

"You've been using it for the whole day!"

Fang ignored his mother and continued looking at the screen.

* * *

**How to Win a Girl's Heart**

Many men struggle each day watching the love of their life flock around with other guys knowing that you are the person that really does love her. Jealousy, hatred, and a feeling of loss might all come to life during this time. But what you need to do is win the heart of that special person.

A smile began to form on Fang's lips as he read the opening paragraph.

* * *

_1.__** Courage: **__Most girls like guys with confidence. Just walk up to her and start a simple conversation. If you don't get it the first time, try and try again._

Monday. The worst day of the week ever. Max entered the classroom and flopped down next to Fang tiredly. There was something on her face which looked vaguely like… saliva.

"Did you happen to wash your face with Total's saliva today?" Fang asked her, attempting to be cheerful and not having a clue about what he just said. Max rolled her eyes.

"What does it look like?" she snapped.

"Nothing," Fang muttered and retreated back into his everlasting cone of silence.

"Nothing?! This looks like nothing?" she said shrilly, her voice getting louder by several decibels. Several students sitting around them started to look at their direction.

"Sorry," Fang said, clenching his fist.

Fang: 0, Humiliation: 1

"Whatever," Max replied and looked away. "Curse that stupid Total," she muttered angrily to herself. "Too bad he's not a female, that way I can just call him a rhymes-with-witch without being worried that Mum will kill me for bad language."

* * *

_2. Make her feel like the most beautiful thing in the world. You can actually directly say that! Girls LOVE to know they are beautiful, but don't push it, because then you just feel awkward and can't hold a conversation about something else. Just saying something like "You look beautiful today!" will make her happy. As long as you mean it._

"You look beautiful today," Fang said to Max, who was rambling to herself about the woes of having a dog.

" – and that freaking dog – Huh? What?" Max asked.

"Y-you look beautiful today," Fang repeated.

"Oh. Um. Okay. Thanks," Max replied, a surprised look on her face.

Success!

Fang: 1, Humiliation: 1

"Fang, are u implying that she doesn't look beautiful any other day?" Brigid said in her loud, shrill voice. Fang winced.

"Course not!" Fang replied and scowled. Stupid Brigid. He turned back to look at Max and met a crossed face.

"Did you really mean it?" she asked, tensed.

"Of course!" Fang said, indignant.

"You mean you only think I look beautiful only on days when Total drools on my face? Thanks, Fang!" she scoffed and stormed off.

Fang mentally whacked himself twenty times on the head.

Girls were just so hard to understand.

Fang: 0, Humiliation: 2

* * *

_3. Simple little touches will help. If her head hurts, tell her you're sorry and stroke her face a little bit (only if she's single). Make a point to pick a pretend fuzz ball off her back or something and then quickly stroke her back with your hand, but make sure you don't rub her down._

After Max returned from wherever she had been, Fang apologized to her and she simply nodded.

"Do you have a headache?" he asked Max.

"Yeah, how did'ya know?" she asked.

"Sorry," Fang murmured and stroked a face. Before she could react, he picked an imaginary fluff ball off her and flicked it away. "You've got something on your back," he said.

"Um. Okay. Thanks," Max said uncomfortable. Fang immediately stroked her back with the back of his hand, but not too hardly though. He felt Max tremble under his touch.

"What're you trying to do?" she asked, staring at him with accusatory eyes.

"Nothing," he quickly said, and returned his hands to himself.

Max gave him one long, lasting look before turning back to her work.

Fang: 0, Humiliation: 3

* * *

_4. You should try to make her laugh… Girls love a funny guy._

"Hey Max, why did Piglet look into the toilet bowl?" Fang asked Max during lunch.

"How would I know?" Max asked.

"To look for Pooh! Get it? Poo? Pooh? Um. Never mind."

"O-kayyyy."

"Have you heard of the joke about the vacuum cleaner?" Fang attempted again.

Max shot her best friend a look before answering a slow, "Nooo…?"

"It sucks!" Fang smiled. Max blinked.

"Fang, are you sure you aren't on drugs or something?" Max asked, looking at him worriedly. "Did you fall ill? Are you sick?"

"Heck, he's sick alright. Lovesick," Iggy taunted as he walked past.

Fang felt like punching the lights out of him at that moment.

"Yeah right," Max snorted.

"Yeah right!" Iggy said. Max's eyes widened a little.

"With who?" she asked suspiciously. She looked as if she was about to murder someone. "How do you even know?"

"Pretty obvious, if you ask me," he laughed and walked away, leaving behind a very confused Max and an extremely embarrassed Fang.

Fang's note to self: Never attempt to joke ever again if value life.

Fang: 0, Humiliation: 4

* * *

_5. **Care for her: **__Ask her about her day. It's a simple way to show her that you're interested in what she does. When she starts to talk, you must give her your full attention. Look her in the eye and don't check anyone else out! And most importantly, don't interrupt!_

The bell rang after the last lesson of the day and resounding whoops rang through the hallway. Fang walked out of classroom with Max by his side. She was grumbling about all the homework to be done, and about wishing how she could send Total to the pound so that she wouldn't have to tolerate his butt-licking of other dogs on the television and condemning her to have her faced full of Total drool every once in a while.

"Um. How was your day?" he asked.

"It was fine, thankyouverymuch. What's with you? Why did you act so weird today?" Max asked, frustrated.

Fang paused for a long time, thinking of a respond to her remark.

"Dunno," Fang finally replied and walked away. He didn't have anything better in mind.

That's the effect Max had on him sometimes. He'd be sane one moment, then – ZAP – his mind would go blank.

Fang: 0, Humiliation: 5

Dang.

* * *

_6. Be natural! You can't keep on putting up an act in front of the love of your life._

Fang stared angrily at the piece of printed paper in his hands.

Be natural!

That should have been the first on the list! Then he wouldn't have had to do all those stupid things and embarrass himself in front of Max!

Fang crumpled the piece of paper and threw it into the dustbin.

So, looks like the internet isn't that reliable after all.

_End of Multiple Flashbacks

* * *

_

Max

I blinked slowly as I tried to absorb what Fang just told me.

"That was last Monday?" I asked. He nodded my head curtly. Wow. Fang must have had given up much pride to tell me all that. Um. Wow.

Last Monday…

Fang had been acting weird, but I had passed that off because the next day he was back to his normal, quiet, black self again. Come to think of it, he had seemed a tad more depressed than usual.

Last Monday…

I sighed and hit myself on the forehead with my palm.

"Fang, you silly idiot!" I exclaimed. He looked at me with dark eyes, uncomprehending.

Idiot! I was PMS-ing! No wonder I responded like that. Not to mention Total totally ruined my day in the morning and put me in a horrible mood! Gosh, that guy really knows how to pick the days…

I turned to Fang and realized that his face was red. Oh no, no no no no no, I did not just say that out loud.

"P… PM… PMS?" he stuttered. And Fang does not stutter. Holy (insert-swear-word-of-your-choice-here)!

"Nothing. Never mind," I said and waved it aside. "So, internet and books. Why didn't you ask like your friends or something?"

Fang's expression darkened.

"You have no idea," he said darkly.

* * *

_Multiple Flashbacks_

Iggy

"Ig, can I ask you something?" Fang asked nervously.

"If it's about the stuff to make a bomb hidden in your locker, I had nothing to do with it," Iggy said quickly. Fang shot him a look.

"I have a friend's friend's aunt's son's friend who has a problem," Fang started. He inwardly winced as he saw Iggy's smirk getting larger by the second. Maybe going to Iggy for advice was a bad idea.

"What's his name?" Iggy asked.

"…Nick."

"What's his problem?" Iggy asked.

"There's this person he's really close to and he really likes her but he doesn't know if he should tell her but he wants to so now he's stuck," Fang said, rushing the words.

"You mean like how to get the person to fall in love with your friend?" Iggy implied, smiling larger.

"You could say so," Fang muttered.

"Well some girls like flowers and chocolates and all that. You could try giving that to the person."

Fang scowled. "It's my friend's friends' aunt's son's friend, not me."

"Uhuh," Iggy grinned. "Fang's in lurrrrveeee."

"My friend's friend's aunt's son's friend!" I hissed.

"How dense do you think I am?" Iggy scoffed.

"Very," Fang muttered and stalked off.

* * *

Mum

"Mum, how did you and Dad get together?" Fang asked his mother. They were both sitting on the couch, watching television. His father had not yet returned from work.

"Well, honey, I met your father at a party and things got a little bit out of hand. Then I found out I was pregnant and we had no choice but to get married. But now we're happy," she smiled.

Fang almost gagged.

"Are you okay, dear? Is there something wrong?" his mother asked.

"I'm fine," he muttered and went back up to his room.

He definitely was not going to let things "get out of hand" with Max just to marry her or something. Outrageous! Fang never knew that his parents were like that.

* * *

Max

Shocking as it may seem, Fang finally consulted Max. However, not wanting her to recognize his voice, he put a handkerchief over the phone so that his voice would be muffled.

"Hello?" he heard her voice as she picked up the phone.

"Yo," Fang said.

"Who's that?" Max asked. Fang ignored the question

"What kind of guys do you like?" Fang asked.

"Who _are_ you?"

"Nobody. Just answer the question."

"You're some sick stalker, aren't you? How did you get my phone number?! GET AWAY FROM ME!" Max screamed and slammed the receiver down.

Fang looked at his phone as if it contained all the answers to the world.

Well, sadly it didn't.

Was Fang some sick stalker?

Sort of.

At least he hadn't spied on her at night through her window or something.

Yet.

_End Multiple Flashbacks

* * *

_

"Oh. My. Gosh. That was you?!" I exclaimed.

WHATTTTT?!

And. I. Called. Him. A. Sick. Stalker.

I am never going to live this down.

"Sorry," I muttered.

We settled into an awkward silence, Fang sitting next to me with an arm slung over my shoulder. No wonder he had been a little out of it that day. Geez.

"Um. Fang? Do you think of me as your sister?" I asked, as a sudden thought struck a chord in my mind.

"Mhm. Maybe more," he replied.

I opened my mouth, then closed it. Then I opened it again.

"Then, is this like… incest?!" I asked, mortified.

"Never thought of it that way…" Fang muttered to himself. "Maybe? But… technically, we aren't siblings."

I heaved a sigh of relief.

"Then," I stated, "it should be perfectly fine for me to do this."

Fang tried to say something but I silenced him with my lips.

Heaven. Paradise. Joy. All packed into one.

A girl like me could never get tired of this. Not even if Brigid and Mandy found and screamed or something.

I heard the door slam open and Brigid's resounding shriek pierce through the air.

I should really learn to watch my words.

* * *

A little random, stupid and out of character, but Fang was trying his best to woo Max after all. Ah, the woes of love.

(I'm missing someone… where's jazz. x. bean?!?!!?!?! –cries–)


	16. Blackmail & Murder

I LOVE YOU! :] Thank you so much for your awesome reviews :] –big hugs– P.S. I dreamed of running around like a madwoman slapping random people with rubber chickens and drowning them in chicken curry yesterday night. o_o Serious. Weird.. HAHAHA.

Sorry in advance if you found this chapter rather bad. Lack of inspiration due to no school :( [I HATE HOLIDAYS!!]

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Maximum Ride or any characters associated with the story.

* * *

**Chapter 16: Blackmail and Murder **

I pulled away and blushed furiously. I didn't dare to risk a glance at Fang.

"Oh. My. God," Brigid said, stupefied. "You. Were. Making. Out."

Wow, Brigid actually has eyes! What an amazing discovery!

"Mr. Danny. Is. Going. To. Freak," she said and ran off.

I heard Fang utter a word that I have never heard him say ever in my entire life knowing him. And that was pretty long.

"What is this?!" I heard Mr. Danny roar.

Dang.

* * *

"This is outrageous!" Mr. Danny burst. "I send both of you back to because Fang was craving fishballs and return to find you two making out! I shudder to think of the consequences of your actions if I had returned later!"

Huh?

"We're not that stupid, Mr. Danny," Fang said. He got what Mr. Danny was talking about? Maybe it was some "Man" thing… Yeah…

"Oh who knows?" he scoffed.

"I wouldn't have allowed it," Fang said angrily. Mr. Danny appeared to ignore that comment.

"I sent both of you to share a room because I trusted you, and now you both have broken it."

Fang rolled his eyes.

"And that is why I have now decided to change your rooming partners for the last night of the chalet and report this incident to your parents."

Okay, so maybe that wasn't so bad after all.

"Max, you will be rooming with Lissa. And Fang will be sleeping with _me _tonight," Mr. Danny smirked. Fang sent me a look that said "save me!". Oh. Right.

Mr. Danny was gay. Remember?

I can imagine what's going on in Fang's head right now. I think it'd go something like this:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Poor Fang. But still. Oh my gosh. Well, a best friend's gotta do what a best friend's gotta do.

"That can't happen, Mr. Danny," I said, putting as much steel as possible into my voice.

"And why is that so?" he questioned angrily.

"_I _don't trust you," I stated simply.

Mr. Danny shot me a quizzical look. Fang suddenly grinned at me. What did he have in mind? Bipolar, that weirdo.

"We know all about you," Fang said darkly. I caught on quickly enough.

"Your deeeep daaaaark secret," I said, in the same tone. The expression on Mr. Danny's face was hilarious! It made me want to crack up over and over again.

"What books you read," Fang said.

"And your preference for _men_," I continued.

"Shut up!" Mr. Danny bellowed, his face red; from embarrassment or anger, I do not know.

"Well? You _are _gay, aren't you?" I asked.

"I prefer the term homosexual."

"Whatever," Fang said.

"Who knows what you may do to Fang at night? Anyway he's way better looking than Baldie," I told Mr. Danny. His face went red.

"Don't you dare insult my Tommy-boo!" he screeched.

I bit my lips, trying not to laugh. Fang looked kind of constipated.

"I'm sure the principal would certainly love to hear about this," I threatened subtly.

"Are you… _blackmailing _me?" Mr. Danny said.

I shrugged.

"Oh _fine_!" he shouted. "But _you _will not be sleeping in the same room as Fang tonight, you understand?! Fang can stay with Iggy, but Maximum Ride, you will be going to chalet number 32 and share with Lissa and Brigid."

"Yeah, whatever." And who the heck is Lissa?

"Why you kids don't understand this is all for your own good just escapes me," Mr. Danny muttered to himself. He shot dagger looks at us. "Well? What're you still doing here?" he snapped.

Fang and I went back to chalet 34 and were bombarded with questions.

"Where have you _been_?!" Angeline screeched.

"Yeah! You just like disappeared and Mr. Danny didn't even explain anything to us at all!" Zoe added.

"He just said that both of you came back here alone," Iggy said suggestively.

I grabbed the nearest thing to me – awesome, an umbrella – and whacked Iggy with it. I was rewarded with an outraged 'Ow'.

"The Botanical Gardens was boring," Alvin said.

"You missed watching Brigid being chased by a racoon!" Carmen said.

"Fangy! Maxy! You're backkk!" Brandon squealed from the top of the stairs.

I almost ran to the toilet and threw up.

"You don't reckon he's a bit like Mr. Danny?" I asked Fang.

"Nah, if he was he would've attacked me already," Fang replied with a small smile. "I'm too good looking for my own good."

Men's egos these days.

"What're you talking about?" Michelle asked.

"Nothing," we both said together.

"By any chance, does it have anything to do with Brigid screaming?"

"Nope," Fang and I said unanimously.

"Definitely a yes," Iggy stage-whispered to Alvin. Alvin rolled his eyes.

"Are you guys talking about me?" Brandon asked.

"You wish," everyone said.

"Oh. Okay. Hey, let's go watch Spongebob! It's on now," Brandon chirped.

"YEAHHHHH!" Carmen squealed and dashed to the television.

"Those kids," Angeline remarked and rolled her eyes.

"I'll go get my stuff now," I said and headed upstairs.

"Whaddya mean?!" Zoe exclaimed.

"Rooming with Lissa," Fang explained.

"Whoever that is," I muttered snidely.

"What happened?"

"Got into trouble," I said, not wanting to elaborate and avoiding Fang's eyes.

I excused myself went up to shower. I was not going to bathe over _there_. I bet Lissa was some snotty person or whatever and the room was going to freaking _reek_ of perfume and whatnot.

I grabbed my night clothes and went into the toilet. I stepped into the hot water. Man, it felt good.

Then, I heard the door open.

Holy (insert swear word of your choice here)! Did I forget to lock the door? Thank goodness the shower didn't face the door and I had drawn the shower curtains or whatever those were called.

"Um. Hello? Who's there?" I asked.

I was answered with the door clicking shut.

I reached out to grab my towel… and only succeeded in grabbing air. Huh. I looked around and realized that my towel and clothes were gone! Whoever did that was going to _pay_, big time.

"Um, hello? Anybody there?" I said timidly.

Oh, heck.

"HELLOOO?! ANYONE THERE?! CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!" I shouted.

"What's wrong?" I heard Fang ask. Crap. Of all the people?

"Um, can you like call one of the girls or something?" I requested.

"Locked themselves in Zoe's room," Fang replied.

Great. Just great.

"Ask one of them to come out!" I told him, desperate and frustrated.

"Wait," he said from the other side of the door. After a moment of silence, he returned. "They won't come out."

I cursed under my breath. Bet you a thousand bucks that they were behind this stupid joke!

"Can you… um… bring me some clothes?" I asked. "Someone came in and stole my, um, clothes and towel."

A moment of silence.

"Uh. Okay," Fang said uncertainly and walked away. I swear, I was going to murder them. No doubt this was another scheme by Angeline, the pervert. I heard a knock on the door.

"Um. Here. I brought you my towel too," he said. Fang opened the door and stood at the entrance dumbly. I sighed and stuck my hand out from the shower curtain thingy. He passed my clothes to me and I thanked him, but I realized that he had forgotten something very, very, very important.

"Er, Fang," I started. Gosh, this was probably the most embarrassing and humiliating moment of my life! "Ialsoneedunderweartoo."

"Come again?" he said.

"I…need und. Under. Und. Underwear," I squeaked.

Fang made a weird noise.

Have I told you that I was going to murder the person who did this and make them scream bloody murder? Oh, guess I have. I could just barely imagine the expression on Fang's face as he picked my undergarments. He'd probably close his eyes and randomly grab some.

Fang knocked the door again. I stuck my hand out, and he passed me my undergarments.

"Thanks," I said, looked at the piece of clothing I was holding, and screamed.

Not caring anymore, I grabbed Fang's towel, draped it around me and stormed out. I hammered on Zoe's room.

"Zoe! You! Come! Out! This! Instant!" I shouted.

I heard someone say "Uh-oh" inside and a few people giggled. I hammered on the door a little louder.

"I'm serious! Open up!" I shrieked hysterically.

The door creaked open a little. I pushed it open and saw that everyone besides Fang and I were in the room.

"Care to explain THIS?!" I yelled and flung my piece of clothing at them.

"Ew!" Brandon exclaimed. The girls burst into laughter.

"What happened?" Iggy asked, confused.

"Max just threw her bra at us," Alvin explained. "_And_ she's wrapped in a towel."

I am never ever going to be able to live this down.

"Are you sure you don't want to wear it anymore?" Carmen asked cheekily. "We can give it to Fang!"

Why that little –

"What?" Fang asked, materializing behind me. I jumped, surprised.

"Stop doing that!" I said.

"Doing what?" he asked.

"Appearing out of nowhere!"

"They're just like an old married couple," Iggy whispered loudly to Zoe. She giggled.

Jeez, could this day get any worse?

"Hey Fang, check this out!" Angeline yelled and threw my …piece of clothing (now referred to as POC) at him. It hit him right smack on the face. Fang took it off, looked at it, and turned beetroot-red as he saw the words on my POC which I had _definitely_ not written. It went something like this:

MAX –heart– FANG.

Apparently he hadn't seen it just now. Well now was a different matter.

_And _I'm wrapped in his towel.

Everyone tumbled down laughing at our expense. Carmen was clutching her stomach and Alvin was snorting. I didn't dare to look at Fang.

I really, really, really, really should learn to watch my words.


	17. A Night With The Airheads

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for bearing with me and the long wait. I know I promised to update by Sunday, but it totally slipped my mind that I had camp. So, I'm really really sorry for not keeping a promise. Secondly, if you realised, I have decided to start replying each individual review :D Er.. At least for those who are logged in. I just started recently, because you guys have taken your time to actually review my story and I really appreciate it a lot and in the past I was really thick-headed enough not to realise that. :D Maybe it doesn't seem important to you, but it is very much to me. So thanks, you rock! (Especially to those who have stuck with me all the way.)

Ah, self-actualization. Haha.

Anyway, thanks again for staying with me throughout, if you reviewed or not. :D The very fact that you have read up to here makes me really happy. :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Maximum Ride or any of the characters associated with the story.

* * *

**Chapter 17: A Night With The Airheads **

After the whole clothing fiasco, I stormed over to chalet number 32. Way to celebrate our last night here, man. First a huge humiliating incident, and now sleeping with a bunch of airheads who probably think that snoring is a huge crime or something.

I knocked on the door.

Nobody answered.

I knocked louder.

"Yo, open up!" I said loudly.

I head shuffling and muffled squealing.

"Is that Iggy? Oh, my, gosh. It must be Iggy!" Voice #1 said.

"Then… Fang must be there with him too! Oh, my, gosh!" Voice #2 squealed. I smacked my forehead with my palm. Bunch of airheads alright.

"But we're like, like, like, dressed so horribly!" exclaimed Voice #1 in horror. "I look like a _toad_! What _is _this?!"

"Did you bring your make up? I totally brought it but my mum threw it out before I knew it. Quickly!"

"Don't want to keep the boys waiting!"

"Uhuh now hurry!"

And the voices faded.

I told you they were a bunch of airheads. I glanced at my watch.

-TEN MINUTES LATER-

I'm starting to get annoyed here. Huh. So much for not wanting to keep the boys waiting. I hammered on the door as loudly as I could. I heard someone scream upstairs in one of the rooms.

It sounded as if a hoard of people was thundering down the stairs. I snickered. They were going to get a huge surprise when they opened the door. The door flew open.

"Hiiiii Iggy! Hiiii Fangy!" Brigid said in a fake high falsetto voice. Her eyes were closed and she pursed her lips.

"We've been waiting for you!" Mandy said flirtatiously. Eh? Mandy? I pushed that aside. Her eyes were also shut.

"Whaddya mean, waiting for me? I've been waiting for ten freaking minutes for _you _to 'dress up'!"

"Why do you sound like Max, Fangy? Are you impersonating her?" Brigid asked disapprovingly.

I snickered and shoved past them. They had both their lips pursed in hope. And have I described what they were dressed in?! Biki-freaking-nis!

I stomped up to the room. There was no other sign of life besides the two twits. They'd probably scared the others out or something. Or the other six people had felt the need to get away from them for the sake of their sanity. Yeah, I'd go with the latter.

"What are _you_ doing here?!" I heard Brigid say, outraged.

"I'm here for the night," I said. "Supposed to be rooming with Lissa. Whoever she is."

"That's _me_, you idiot," Mandy said snottily. I was genuinely confused.

"But aren't you Mandy?" I asked.

"What rock have you been living under?" Brigid rudely asked.

"The purple one under the coconut tree on the beach," I replied snidely.

"There's really such a rock?" Lissa asked, her eyes wide. "Can you show me? It's purple too! That's my second favourite colour next to pink! But there're so many coconut trees on the beach!"

"There's no such thing, you airhead," Brigid hissed.

"Look who's talking," I said.

"You are," Brigid said. I wanted to scream in frustration already.

"Forget it," I muttered.

I trudged up the stairs, Brigid and Lissa at my heels. Just like dogs. Hey! That would make them bitc –

"You're going to stay with us tonight?" Lissa asked, horrorstruck. Apparently, it takes about five minutes for something to process in that extremely thick head of hers.

"Yeah! Omigosh, I'm so excited! We can like do manicures and all! And gossip and talk about how hot the guys are, and we can totally exchange numbers and make a girl bond!" I said sarcastically.

"I didn't know you did things like that," Lissa said, her eyes wide.

"Because I don't!"

"Then why did you say you want to do it?"

"Ever heard of the term sarcasm?"

"Not really."

"Lissa!" Brigid burst. "You're just making a fool of yourself!"

"Actually," I pointed out. "You both are. Making kissy faces in bikinis at the door hoping it was Fang and Iggy? Please."

At that, both of them turned bright red.

"Hey! Ohmygod, you don't have any boobs!" Lissa suddenly said, and whacked me… there. What the hell?! I reeled back, clutching on the banister of the stairs and stared at her.

"What the heck was that for?!"

"I don't like you! You don't have any boobs!" She scowled. "Mine are too big! At first I thought it was like, cool and all that but now it's like – eurgh! Well, at least Brigid's are worse."

"What?!" Brigid screeched. Maybe those witches were her distant relatives or something.

"Okay, you know what, enough with this boob talk. I don't like you either. Can I go to sleep now?" I asked.

"But we can't!" Brigid said and whirled around, her eyes widened innocently. Not to mention it was obviously fake.

Boy, was I in for a night.

* * *

Let me give you one word of advice. Okay, maybe more than a word.

NEVER. EVER. ROOM. WITH. PEOPLE. LIKE. BRIGID. OR. LISSA.

They refused to let me sleep in peace. When I crawled into bed, they pulled off the covers and told me they wanted to play games with me to get to know me more. When I crawled under the bed instead, they tickled me and pulled me out. I even resorted to going to the toilet but their voices were to shrill and ugh! I felt like slapping them.

So anyway that's how I ended up here playing pointless games like Shoot, Shag and Marry.

"What the hell is that game about?" I asked, as a sinking feeling went into my stomach. The name itself said it all.

"Well, we'll give you the names of three guys and you'll have to say out of the three, which one you'd shoot, who you'd rather shag and which one you'd rather marry."

"I'm so excited!" Lissa said eagerly. Brigid grinned and I scowled.

"Okay, so Lissa, we'll start with you! Come on, Max, let's think of some guys!"

"Er. Brandon."

"Fang! And Alvin!"

Lissa didn't even hesitate.

"Shoot Brandon, shag Fang and marry Alvin!"

Poor Fang.

"Bri! Now it's your turn! Hmm…"

"Iggy."

"Mr. Danny and Spongebob!"

"Spongebob isn't counted!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Can we get on with this already?" I said, annoyed. Bunch of pansies.

"Fine! Shoot the sponge, shag Iggy and marry Mr. D."

"He's gay, you know," I said on a whim. Both their eyes widened a fraction and they stared at me as if I had just said that Fang was the ugliest guy on Earth or something. Actually, Fang's the hottest guy on Earth. But I didn't say that, okay?

"You're kidding," Brigid assumed. I shook my head.

"Nope."

"NO WAY!" Brigid and Lissa screamed. I nodded solemnly.

"OHMYGOD!" Lissa screamed. "WHAT IF HE WANTS FANG?"

"FANG IS TOO HOT TO BE IN THE SAME ROOM AS MR. DANNY!"

"Okay, shush!" I said, seriously PO-ed.

"Let's play another game!" Lissa-with-the-split-personality-issues chirped.

"First Thought!" Brigid yelled.

"What's that?"

"Well, we give you a subject and you have to say the first thought that comes to your mind."

"Like, I tell Brigid beach, and she'll have to say the first thought that comes to her mind, which is…?"

"Seeing Fang in swimming trunks!!!!!!!!!" I rolled my eyes.

"Okay since I started first, Max you'll start! Hmmm…"

"Basketball players!" Brigid said.

"Basketball players?" I asked, my tone monotonous.

"Yeah! Come on, what comes to your mind when you first think about basketball players?" Lissa asked eagerly. I snorted.

"Loose singlets and a whole load of armpit hair," I said seriously. Brigid and Lissa made disgusted faces.

"Only that? No Troy Bolton? No hot guys?" Lissa asked disappointedly.

"You. Watch. High. School. Musical," Brigid uttered, shocked. "All those years we've known each other and you never told me!"

"Well, I wanted Troy to myself."

"You… you… AGHH!!" Brigid screamed and threw herself at Lissa and started scratching at each other. "I WATCH HSM TOO YOU KNOW! WE COULD HAVE TOTALLY BITCHED ABOUT GABRIELLA!"

I quietly sneaked out of the room into another one and locked the door. Despite that, I could still hear them screaming at each other.

Well, at least they were fighting over some High School Musical person, not Fang.

* * *

Reviews are really appreciated :) Thanks. Have a great day!


	18. Meeting Bobby the Kangaroo Disguised

It's going to be overrrr!! :O Sorry that I haven't updated in A GAZILLION YEARS. School just opened. H1N1! :O

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Maximum Ride or any other characters associated with the story. Neither do I own Bobby the Kangaroo. Thank you Fuzzylogic! :D

* * *

**Chapter 18: Meeting Bobby the Kangaroo Disguised as a Cow**

"OPEN THE FREAKING DOOR, DUDE!" someone shouted and banged loudly on the door. "OPEN UP! I NEED MY CLOTHES!"

I groaned and turned.

And dropped onto the floor.

"Ow," I muttered, and blearily got up. I realized that the room was empty and sunlight was streaming in. Someone was banging incessantly on the door, shouting for me to get up.

"I'm up!" I shouted. "Coming!"

"Finally," the male voice said. I rolled my eyes. As I passed the mirror on the dresser, I realized that my hair was a mess and I was clad in my pyjamas and in a totally different chalet. Sunlight was streaming through the windows. And today was the very last day!

I could do a happy dance, but I won't.

I opened the door, only to face Ken.

"Sheesh!" he said, and pushed past me to his bags.

"W-what are you doing here?" I yawned. "I thought Lissa and Brigid slept in this unit?"

"And so do I and some other people," he said, and rolled his eyes. "We went out yesterday night as we couldn't stand their stupidity, and when we came back, a particular _someone _was in my room. Sam and I had to sleep on the couches!"

"I'm sorry," I said, abashed.

He grunted.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Eight. We have to be in the main chalet by half-past eight with our packed bags. There's some last program before we're dismissed."

"Oh. Okay. Thanks," I said. I left the chalet and headed towards 34.

I yawned and wondered what was going to be up on today's menu. Reaching the front porch, I knocked on the door.

"MAAAAAAAAAXXX IIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS BBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!" Iggy screeched when Zoe opened the door, and a group of people attacked me into a hug. So _that_ was how squashed bugs feel.

And guess who wasn't there to hug me?

Right.

Typical.

"Get changed! Iggy and Monsieur Bean have breakfast, and Fang helped you pack your bags," Brandon said. I nodded absently and headed up.

Fang followed.

"Hey," he said, as we both entered the room.

"Hi."

"I packed your stuff."

"Noticed."

"Yeah…"

I sighed.

"I'll go change," I said and walked towards my stuff.

"I missed you," he said quietly, I thought I didn't hear it at all.

Yeah… probably dreaming…

I got my clothes.

"I'm going to change now," I pointed out. "Are you going to stay?"

Fang turned around and left the room. His cheeks were slightly tinged with pink.

* * *

"Hey! Look at that cow!" Zoe squealed and pointed.

So after dumping our stuff onto the bus, Mr. Danny told us that our last stop was at a farm. More specifically, a cow farm. Or whatever it was. The first thing that hit me was the freaking smell! Then the noise. Then the cows. We were supposed to explore the farm in groups.

Fang and I turned. Someone was seated on the stool, milking a cow in a rhythmic pattern.

"That's practically molest!" Brandon said in disgust as we watched the people milking the cows. Squeezing the udders. Squish, squish, squish. I snickered. Fang shot a discreet glance my way, thinking that I didn't see. Yeah, things were kind of awkward around us, especially with Iggy and his funny jokes around, but it's getting better though.

"Why do their… udders look so pink? It's like, fake," Alvin commented.

"It looks like some kind of pink plastic over the udder!" Michelle exclaimed.

"Ohmygod! What if it's like condoms, for the udder! Hahaha! And it's pink, so what if it's strawberry flavoured??? Can you imagine – what if you put a strawberry flavoured condom on the cow's udder and squeeze the milk out, and you'll get strawberry milk! HAHAHAHA!"

"EWWWW!!"

"And chocolate flavoured condoms! Then we'll have chocolate milk!" Zoe said.

"I am never ever going to drink milk ever again," Alvin said.

"Who would, after that …interesting theory?" Michelle giggled.

"Condoms have flavor?" Angeline suddenly asked, seemingly interested. Iggy blinked rapidly.

"I don't know!" Carmen said happily. "But what if there is? Ohm – "

"Quick, someone get soap! We need to clean her mouth! And brains!" Michelle yelled, her hand clapped over Carmen's mouth. We laughed and I shot a glance at Fang. Are my eyes deceiving me, or is Fang looking really, really interested?

I threw that thought out of my mind and laughed uneasily.

"Why would condoms have flavor, though?" Fang asked. He had been so quiet, everyone jumped when they heard his voice. I snickered.

"I know…" Angeline said, and smiled in _that _way. The classic pervert look. My insides lurched.

"They don't," I said.

"And how would you know, my dearest Maxie?" Iggy asked and smiled.

"Because."

"My god, you're acting just like my mum. Why? Because. Geez," Angeline rolled her eyes.

"Maxie's just like Mommy," Zoe sang in a sing-song tone.

"But then who is our Daddy?" Michelle asked and giggled.

"Your Daddy's Maxie's hubby!" Alvin said. Cheesy.

"And Maxie's hubby's Fangy!" Iggy ended. I flushed.

"Does that mean they had sex?" Carmen piped up.

"Mommy, where do babies come from?" Angeline asked in a 'baby' voice. I rolled my eyes.

"Well, dear, you see, when your Mommy and Daddy love each other _veeerrryy_ much, they do something to show their love, and then babies are made!" Fang said, looking at a cow.

The mooing of the cow broke the complete silence.

We were all staring at Fang in shock. Me included. And Iggy staring at his general direction.

"Is he PMSing?" Michelle suggested in an uneasy voice.

"Huh?" Fang said, and turned around to face us, looking genuinely surprised. "I didn't say anything. Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked.

The cow laughed.

I. Am. Serious.

I mean, it's mouth didn't move, but… it was LAUGHING!

"A-am I dreaming?" Zoe muttered, and started walking backwards away from the cow.

"Pinch me," Brandon said. "Perhaps the Flying Dutchman has set a curse on me! Ouch! I didn't mean pinch me literally!"

"What's going on?"

"I AM BOBBY, A KANGAROO IN DISGUISE AS A COW," the cow said. It continued chewing.

How the heck can it talk and chew at the same time?

"Okay, uh, Bobby… Why can you talk?" Carmen asked.

"The King of Cows has set blessed me with the privilege of speech," the cow said.

Then it farted. Or pooped. Whatever it did, it sounded wet. And disgusting.

"EWWWW!" A little boy's voice exclaimed.

"GAZZY!" Iggy exclaimed, and started laughing. The Gasman emerged from behind the cow, covered in dung.

Ouch.

"Practicing throwing your voice, are you?" Fang asked, annoyed.

Gazzy grinned cheekily.

"You mean you were Bobby the Kangaroo in disguise as a cow?" Brandon asked, interested.

"Uhuh! Hi! I'm The Gasman! Gazzy," he smiled toothily and held out a hand to shake.

"I'd … er… rather not," Michelle said, glancing at his dirty hand.

"What are you doing here?" Iggy asked.

"Enjoying nature," he said. I rolled my eyes.

"What is with you and nature?" I asked and rolled my eyes.

"Well, I have to learn from the experts," he said and looked at me seriously.

Unfortunately, I think I caught on.

"You – you mean – what the heck?!" I exclaimed.

"It's coming," he said and looked at me with serious, wide eyes. "I've learned from the experts. Now, it's time to test my skills."

"EVERYBODY RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!" Iggy yelled, and we ran out, pulling the others along. They had confused looks on their faces.

We got out just in the nick of time.

I could practically hear a "Boom" as Gazzy let go.

I think I heard the cow moo and thud loudly onto the floor.


	19. The End

Thank you sooooo much. :D I really love everyone for your support & reviews.

Maximum Ride Fanfiction Awards: 2 by Myrah. If you haven't gone there, check it out, there's a link on my profile. OHMYGOD THANK YOU WEIGHTLESS FOR NOMINATING 38DC AS BEST AU! I LOVE YOU! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Maximum Ride or any characters associated with the story. And I'll have to thank St. Fang of Boredom too, 'cause I got one part from Job Listings. (If you ever see this, I hope you don't mind!)

* * *

**Chapter 19: The End**

"What in the name of – "

"What was that?!"

"OHMYGOD WHAT IS THAT SMELL?!"

"I think I'm going to throw up."

Apparently, Gazzy had gotten a taste of his own medicine – big time. He himself fainted after smelling his own… exhaust. Fang and Iggy had dashed in for him when he didn't appear after five minutes. Iggy's face had literally turned green after coming out and now, Gazzy's _wonderful_ creation had spread around the whole farm and everyone was rushing for the bus.

"This… this, _kid_ created that fart bomb?!" he exclaimed.

"I'm not a kid," Gazzy protested.

"Who are you anyway?" Mr. Danny ignored him.

"The Sharkalator. Captain Terror. Zephyr. Your pick," Gazzy grinned. I rolled my eyes.

"Young boy, I'll have to… " Someone pulled me away and dragged me beside one of the busses.

"Hey! We want you as a mop for project fook!" Angeline whispered conspirationally into my ear.

"A what for what?!" I asked. I saw familiar faces in the group of people. Very familiar faces. Zoe, Michelle, Carmen and Angeline looked excited, Fang had a bored expression on his face Alvin and Iggy were teasing Brandon about the Flying Dutchman incident that had happened on the first day of the chalet.

Gotta say, we'd come a long way.

"A mop for project fook! It's like, spelled F-U-C-bracket-K! It stands for Fun Under the Ceiling (Kids only!) The kids only part was because we couldn't find anything suitable for the K. And Zoe and I are going to be the tables, because people sit on chairs and we'll get their butts, so chairperson wouldn't be suitable," Angeline grinned. She was reminding me more and more of Nudge and the horrible shopping experience we had had.

"And you want me to mop the floor?" I asked, an eyebrow raised.

"No! A mop is like, a Member Of Parliament."

"This isn't a government!"

"But it'll be fun!"

"What is this going to be about, anyway?"

"Everyone get in the bus now!" Mr. Danny roared, saving me from more of the madness. Angeline giggled and shot me a pointed look. I rolled my eyes and headed back to the car. Most of the people were rejoicing and some others were looking rather sad.

We're headed for home, sweet, home.

* * *

The bus ride back seemed longer than usual, and I was starting to feel claustrophobic. I couldn't sleep because everyone was making so much noise talking about the whole chalet and all. I was stuck next to some random kid in the bus – Abigail, if I'm not mistaken. She was reading a book. Jeez.

"HEY MAX! COME HERE!" Carmen suddenly called. I raised my eyebrows and shot a look to the back of the bus. A _lot_ of people were crowding over a laptop that Alvin was using. And they were all giggling and shooting furtive glances at Fang, who was listening to his iPod. Okay so maybe four wasn't a lot, but you catch my drift.

I sighed, wondering what it was all about, and made my way over.

"YOU HAVE _GOT_ TO SEE THIS!" Brandon exclaimed, making room for me.

I stared at the screen and I got the feeling that everyone there was holding their breath.

It was a photo of me.

"So?" I arched my eyebrows.

"Do you know whose laptop this belongs to, Max?" Alvin asked.

"Nope."

"Fang."

"Yeah, so?"

"We're not allowed to bring computers."

"So?"

"We searched for your name."

"SO?!"

"He has a whole folder of pictures of you.

"So – what?!"

Ironically, some random person started singing the song 'So What'. Carmen giggled.

"Nah, you're faking," I said after a moment of silence. "That isn't Fang's computer."

"Look at this!" Angeline ignored me.

"_Roses are red,_

_Total turned blue,_

_When he saw your face_

_And didn't recognize you!_

_Happy fourteenth, Max. Though I guess the poem wouldn't work."_

"Holy crap."

"What's that?" Iggy asked, and hopped over.

"Fang writes poems!"

"I – this is invasion of privacy!" I said, looking at the word document, which was apparently eighty-four pages long full of entries.

"_My cheeks turn red_

_You have no clue_

_Whenever I sleep_

_I dream about you." _

"Well now she knows," Brandon laughed.

"Sappy poetry!" Iggy said. "Is he any good?"

"You don't want to know," Carmen giggled. She scrolled down the document.

"_Max and I_

_Had fun today"_

"Wonder what kind of fun," Iggy remarked, shooting me a pointed look. I shot him a dirty look, which was sadly wasted.

"_If Iggy were here,_

_he'd think the wrong way"_

"Hear, hear," Zoe added.

"Hey, what're you doing with my computer?" Fang asked. Angeline quickly exited the document.

"Nothing," we smiled sweetly. And Iggy _just _had to ruin it all.

"Max and Fang had fun today," he started saying in a sing-song voice. "If I were there, I'd think the wrong way!"

"Iggy!" we protested.

Fang's immediate reaction was to stare at us as if we were a bunch of people who had suddenly sprouted wings. Then his face started to turn alarmingly red.

"Give it back!" he said.

"Seriously, Fang, you shouldn't be a poet," Brandon said.

"Yeah, you don't have to put the emo goth kid front! We know you're really a bouncy ball of bubbling happiness!" Guess who.

"Go ahead, be the comedian," Fang said bitterly.

"Yeah.. I wonder.. what would it be like if Fang worked at a store?" Michelle asked.

"HAHAHA!"

"Excuse me, sir, could you tell me where the electrical appliances section is?" Carmen said in a bad imitation of a male voice.

"Cue Fang shrugging."

"What about the toilet?" Angeline added.

"Cue Fang shrugging."

"Can you tell me anything at all?"

"I'm an emo goth kid who looooves Max," Iggy said in a girly voice. Everyone burst into laughter. Not including Fang and I. In fact, I was enjoying the wonderful scenery flashing past outside.. Jeez, why is it so hot in here?!

"You asked for it," Fang said, and tackled Iggy.

* * *

I rang the doorbell, and when it opened I was squashed into a bear hug. I untangled myself from my sister, and, -shocker- Nudge and Angel, and made my way into the house.

"So how was it???" Ella asked eagerly.

"Did you see Gazzy?" Angel questioned, Celeste dangling from one of her hands. "He told me he was going to fat a bomb!"

"Was it fun? I think if I'd gone, I'd totally enjoy myself! OMG! It's like, a major sleepover or something! And - "

"Why don't we switch the Nudge Channel off, honey? Max just got back - she must be tired." I grinned at my mother gratefully.

"Thanks, Mum."

"I hoped you enjoyed yourself," Mum smiled. I grinned.

Heck, they had no idea.

"Hey, since you're back, let's go shopping again!" Ella joked. I looked at her seriously.

"Yeah sure! And we could buy like all the skirts and get Nudge awesome dresses and we'll _have_ to get our nails done!" I said, putting on a cheery accent. Ella suddenly looked frightened, and I chuckled inwardly.

"Mum...? Are you sure... uh... that this is Max?"

I flashed her a grin.

Life is great.


	20. Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements!

For every reader and reviewer who has stuck with me throughout the whole span of this story;  
(And for whole span, I mean reading it from the first chapter to the last)

**THANK YOU SO MUCH.**

I probably couldn't have done it without you guys, so really a big thank you to you all! You took the time to read & review, so I'll take the time to type your names out :D

As of August 02, 2009

**FAXfan, dusk3ttex01, Perinne, StalkerOfFang, Someoneyoudon'tknowprobably, Bladestar123, jazz. x. bean, Fuzzylogic, redroseinsanity, Rian, Mo, gypsyprincess94, Jacob Black Ooft. . . Phitt, Midge 1012, princessofodd, Hyper-Dinosuar-Says-RAWR**, **WinglesslyWinged, Nephii, sianski, WingedGirl4life, flyerac1029, violetrulz132, xofangluvaxo, Drusilla Holden, , KnKCullen, djpc450, Tic-Tak!, Maximum Baudelaire, thetrianglehead, .john, Why So Sirius, the7thflockmember, Zeze, PeruvianChick, Chase Taylor Ride, Readerchick, Silver Winged Singer, therealmax, BlueRose22, Skittles31, lookingforthelight, Ixyfire, TRockergirl14, eaglegal4, Randomanimallover, Zollo, penny_lane, Yeah!, Veronica Rose Potter, '2J0AnnA2', Iggy_luver, sccrgirl, DES, 123-Cat-Cat-321, for the love of Iggy, Sarah J/Samantha Test, Zelda/Agent DM, Pretty Little Problems, hey my name is tabby, Silent Broken Heart, .sweeter, Loveinghorses098, starsandwings4ever, Natalie/Pork Ball, de poissons, LovelyNBlue, Asidill, twixx38, non-member, iluvbooks397, Selene Darkmoon, bookwurm96, caitiecat345, bookworm, JacobLuver14, CHSMR, Wants-fang-for-herself, Fax-Addict, motomoto, Surreptitiously Anonymous, buttonsxforxeyes, KeiraMax, smatt93, faxgirl, fang/max=FAX!, hdhehdgdysys, purplewingsfly, Kina Kalamari, Fang Raven, Ina Beana, Sonya Rivers, everyoneisMISunderstood, Anara Celebvilya, JeCrois, -mY cHEMiCAL aT tHE dISCO-**, **sILINCEmAXIMUMdARKO, Moonfrost-InuKag-7768, SeekDreamsAndFindHope  
**

Thank you so much for reviewing! YOU PEBBLE, DOODES. (Er, rock, pebble, geddit? Ah… never mind. Haha :D) My eyes hurt. And my butt hurts too. Haha. And that isn't the end!

**-mY cHEMICAL aT tHE dISCO-, .john, Anara Celebvilya, anime16, Asidill, blackrose19902, Bladestar123, BlueRose22, bookwurm96, buttonsxforxeyes, c00kieand1pixie, cheshie04, CHSMR, demrifancy, dusk3ttex01, elorid'sdragonscrimbit, EskmosCanFly, everyoneisMISunderstood, fangirl7, FangxMaxForever, Fax-Addict, FAXfan, faxgirl, feathers789, Fishcake-Chan, for the love of Iggy, Fuzzylogic11, gypsyprincess94, huntermac0218, Hyper-Dinosuar-Says-RAWR, .sweeter , Jacob Black Ooft. . .Phitt, JacobLuver14, Jandry, JazzyD599, JeCrois , Jinx214, Kate911, KeiraMax, Kina Kalamari, Lookingforthelight, masonangel, Midge 1012, , NERdiiMONkEii, Pretty Little Problems, princessofodd, Readerchick, , of shadows, sianski, Silent Broken Heart, sILINCEmAXIMUMdARKO, Silver Winged Singer, Skittles31, smatt93, starsandwings4ever, the7thflockmember, therealmax, Tiarocks55555, twilighternerd1220, Varelie, violetrulz132, Why So Sirius, WingedWarrior16, xSaphireLilyx, yanihanz, Zollo, sadmadbad  
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I don't think I left anybody out, unless you like reviewed/favourited/alerted my story after I posted this. Sorry if I did though.

NEXT CHAPTER!


	21. Sneak Peek

Sneak Peek!

I don't know if I should do this but, ah well. By the way, I copied this "format" from Armageddon Child, so yeah credits to him/her.

RAC is more serious than and not as funny as 38DC, but I hope you'll like it anyway. Reviews are loved! (Over there! Haha.) By the way, it has already been uploaded with more than one chapter already.

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**Rising Above Challenges: Chapter 1**

_Max gets sent to an orphanage after her parents passed away. There, she meets a strange band of kids not unlike her and soon they become the best of friends. Then Jeb Batchelder appears and everything goes downhill after that. But Max is determined to rise above the challenge, and how far is she willing to go for her friends? Very._

When they told me Mum and Dad died, I didn't shed a tear. I didn't even feel anything at all. It was just as if someone had told me that I had chocolate smeared on my mouth, or that there was going to be a football match later on in the afternoon. If they thought that I was going to cry my heart out, they were wrong.

The reason was kind of simple, actually. It was because my parents didn't care. I was nothing to them. I was just another fly on the wall, another mosquito buzzing around their heads. They treated me like a freak and if they even talked about me, it was as if I wasn't there.

And they brought me to the School.

So what if they died? It was still the same, or better yet, an improvement to my life.

So basically that's how I ended up here, holding Dr. Martinez's and gazing wide-eyed at the woman in front of me. The orphanage was huge and in shambles, but it looked welcoming and homey. There was a small playground at the back – sandbox and all, and I could hear happy shouts and somewhere in the distance a dog was barking.

"Hi honey, I'm Anne Walker," the woman introduced herself not unkindly. "There're many kids like you over here, and you can make many friends. You'll be really happy here," she promised. I nodded but I doubted her. Many kids like me? In terms of the existence of our parents, then yeah. But not _like _me.

"Valencia Martinez," Dr. Martinez said and held her hand out. Anne shook it. "Max's parents passed away in a terrible accident a few weeks ago," Dr. Martinez explained to Anne. "We have had a lot of paperwork to sort out."

"I'm so sorry," Anne said sincerely. "So, Max, am I right?"

I nodded. Anne turned to Dr. Martinez.

"Full name?"

"Max – " I cut Dr. Martinez off.

"Maximum Ride," I interrupted. That was the name I gave myself. I didn't like my old name. And I didn't want anything that could remind me of my parents.

"But isn't your name – "

"It's Maximum Ride. Max." I looked at her and clenched my fist that wasn't in Dr. Martinez's hand into a tiny ball. Anne opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Dr. Martinez interrupted her.

"Please, she's just really upset and has gone through a terrible loss. Go easy on her. She's just ten, Ms. Walker," Dr. Martinez said to Anne, in hope that she would understand. Anne smiled wryly.

"And here we have orphans here who are as young as two, Dr. Martinez," Anne said to her in a matter-of-fact tone.

"But you see, two is too young to understand. Ten, however, is an age where children can actually grasp the reality of it all." Anne nodded understandingly. She leaned down and looked me in the eye.

"So, should I call you Maximum? Or Max?"

"Max. Just Max," I said with a tone of finality. Anne laughed gently.

"You are quite the feisty one, aren't you?" she stated. It wasn't really a question, I could tell. She smiled wryly.

"What's feisty?" I asked. Anne laughed again. I couldn't get what she was laughing about. Was she really happy about something? "Why are you laughing?"

"You know what you remind me of?" Anne asked me, totally ignoring my question. I glared at her for not answering me.

"What?" I asked rudely.

"Me when I was your age," she said and smiled. She stood up straight and started interrogating Dr. Martinez. I badly wanted to ask Dr. Martinez what feisty meant but I didn't want to interrupt their conversation. That was one lesson that my parents had taught me the hard way – do not barge in when adults are talking.

"Age?" Anne said briskly, in a business-like tone. "Ten, was it?"

"Yes, ten," Dr. Martinez said.

"Any important medical illnesses or allergies?"

"None. The rest of the information is in the file here. Date of birth and all that." Dr. Martinez handed a file to Anne.

"Excellent. Alright then, Max, you can get settled in Room Magnolia. There's an empty bed there. I'd bring her up myself, but there're a few other kids waiting outside." It was a clear dismissal.

Dr. Martinez tugged my hand and we walked up the stairs through the hallway, looking for Room Magnolia. We didn't meet anyone on the way up, and from the noise coming from outside, everyone was probably playing at the mini-playground.

It was in the middle of the second story of the three-story building. A picture of a magnolia flower was taped to the door. Taped to the doors of neighbouring rooms were pictures of other flowers. Room named after flowers. How… nice?

"Room Magnolia," Dr. Martinez said. We were standing outside the door. She handed me my duffel bag. I took it with a word of thanks and put it on the floor. It was light – there wasn't much in it.

"Good luck, Max," Dr. Martinez said to me. That was when I realized what was about to happen.

"Don't go," I begged. "Why can't I stay with you? I want to stay with you."

She smiled at me kindly.

"Max, you'll be happy here. You'll make lots of new friends and maybe you can get over the loss of your parents," Dr. Martinez reasoned.

"What about the chocolate-chip cookies? You always bake them the best," I asked as a last-ditch attempt to convince her not to leave me at the orphanage.

"They have chocolate-chip cookies here too. I'll ask Ms. Walker to get some for you. For all you know, they could actually be better than mine," Dr. Martinez said. She smiled at me sadly. "I'll be back to check on you soon, don't worry."

"Is it because you don't want me?" I asked, my tone slightly accusatory, as the thought entered my mind. The orphanage – a place to dump all the unwanted kids. Was that it?

"Of course not!" she replied indignantly. "Where did you even get that thought? You are the sweetest, wittiest and funniest little girl I've ever known."

"Then why did you put me in here?" Dr. Martinez looked at me sadly.

"You won't understand, Max. You're just too young." I looked at her forlornly. "I'm so sorry, Max," Dr. Martinez said, and kissed me on the cheek. "I'm so, so sorry. Good luck. I'll think of you every day."

And with that, she left. I stared at the empty hallway, hearing her footsteps fade into the distance. Dr. Martinez was by far the closest to a family I've ever felt. And now she was gone.

"Bye," I whispered.

I stood there for a few minutes, just staring into space. Sighing heavily, I grabbed my duffel bag, turned around, and entered my new room. It was painted a cheery yellow, and there were three beds in the room and a single dark brown wooden dresser. The room was small, but it felt comfortable and, well, homey. I walked to the only unoccupied bed that was near the window and dumped my bag there. I sat on the bed beside my bag and started swinging my legs. Then I lay down experimentally. The bed felt comfortable enough.

I walked over to the dresser with my bag and started to unpack. I didn't have much, just a few pieces of clothing, a card I stole from my father's pocket, a picture of my family and a notebook and pen. Dr. Martinez had given me the notebook and pen. She told me that it could be an "outlet for any suppressed feelings" that I didn't want to share with anybody else. I had no idea what that meant and I hadn't opened it.

I looked at my family picture. My parents were sitting on a chair, and I was propped on my mother's lap. I had been about five years old then. It looked so… fake. The smiles plastered on my parent's faces – fake. The black hair on my father's head – fake. The jewelry adorned on my mother – fake. In fact, the only real thing was probably the expression on my face. I was wrinkling my nose in disgust, probably at the strong smell of my mother's perfume and father's cologne. I sighed. I didn't need a reminder of a horrible past.

I stood up, went to the window, and hurled the picture out as hard as possible.

Well, that was one piece of trash taken care of.

The dresser composed of three drawers. I opened the first one and found it full clothes that were either black or dark blue. Mostly black. I closed it immediately. The second drawer contained an assortment of clothes belonging to another guy. It was more general than the first. The third drawer was empty, and I claimed it as my own.

Looks like I would be sharing Room Magnolia with two guys. I hoped that they would be fun and not snotty like the kids in my neighbourhood.

"Is this yours?" I jumped and whipped around to see a boy about my age dressed in black standing a few feet away from me. He was extremely good looking – he had black eyes, dark hair and olive skin. He was obviously one of my roommates – the one who had all the black clothes.

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Of course it doesn't end here, but the rest of the chapter is under the real RAC! :D I really hope you'll like it. Thank you for accompanying me throughout 38 DC. I had fun. Review one last time?

I'll miss writing this story.

But when one journey ends, another begins.

-alexa35

_"Here's a freebie: Don't play poker with a kid who can read minds."  
-Max: The Final Warning_

**-FINIS-**


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